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Title: Masters of the Wilderness
Author: Reed, Charles Bert (1866-1940)
Date of first publication: March 1914 (this collection); 1909 (titular essay)
Edition used as base for this ebook:
   Chicago: University of Chicago Press, March 1914
Date first posted: 17 December 2009
Date last updated: 17 December 2009
Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #435

This ebook was produced by: D Alexander
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdpcanada.net




  CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

  FORT DEARBORN SERIES

  Masters of the Wilderness

  _By_

  CHARLES BERT REED, M.D.

  Author of "First Great Canadian"

  [Illustration]

  THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
  CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

    Copyright 1914 By
    CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

    All Rights Reserved

    Published March 1914

    Composed and Printed By
    The University of Chicago Press
    Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

  CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

  FORT DEARBORN SERIES

    THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
    CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

  Agents

  THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

  LONDON AND EDINBURGH

  THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA

  TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO

  KARL W. HIERSEMANN

  LEIPZIG

  THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY

  NEW YORK

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration: MAP OF CANADA

Posts of Hudson's Bay Company indicated by dots]

       *       *       *       *       *

TO

MY FATHER AND MOTHER

IN AFFECTION AND GRATITUDE

       *       *       *       *       *

Preface


The most insistent fact in history is the struggle between man and
Nature, or between man and man with Nature for the prize.

Everywhere the puny human forces have dashed themselves with gallant
idealism or reckless enthusiasm against the obduracy of primeval things.

In America the effort has not been in vain nor devoid of dramatic
interest. A myriad of industrial adventures have found success, and the
papers herewith offered may possibly renew a flagging interest in the
first phases of the comprehensive movement which now takes so
conspicuous a part in our national life.

History and story, it is said, are both narratives, but while history is
regarded merely as a record, story stimulates the imagination.

In truth history should stimulate more powerfully than fiction, for it
concerns the ideals which have moved mankind. The greed of commerce, the
greed of thought, the greed of faith, and the greed of love are alike
masters of our destiny.

If kindling the mind is the mark of literary excellence, then it belongs
to the historian, as to the novelist, to present his subject so that
events will appear, not only in due order, but with appropriate values
and the necessary climax.

This is particularly true in the narrative of inherently adventurous
persons or peculiarly dramatic events. These lives or actions must be
reinvested, if possible, not only with the atmosphere of their time, but
with those unconscious accessory features which are visible only to a
sympathetic posterity. Neither the romantic nor the indifferent, the
lavish nor the sordid can be overlooked without bald misrepresentation.
Every chronicler, however veracious in intent, must pass his material
through his own personality, be it colored or neutral. It is this which
develops the human interest and keeps history in its rightful place as a
branch of literature.

In reproducing these romantic episodes of our exploration era the writer
believes that he has neither exaggerated the color nor distorted the
facts of that intensely human period. He realizes that he is open to
reproach for not keeping more closely to modern methods of historical
presentation, but in adopting the light rather than the solemn style, he
is convinced that this particular subject receives a not inappropriate
dress, and that a page which can be read without fatigue need not
necessarily be untruthful.

This new edition of the "Masters of the Wilderness" is made possible
through the generosity of the Chicago Historical Society, and its
extreme devotion to developments in the Mississippi valley. The
opportunity is, therefore, grasped by the writer to express his
appreciation to the Society and to add the subsidiary papers which are
so vitally allied to the titular essay.

In compiling and arranging his material the author has used unsparingly
every available source of information, both primary and secondary. Most
of these works are mentioned in the appended bibliography, and to them
the writer gladly acknowledges his indebtedness. Thanks are also due to
Miss Lillian Quealy who assisted with the manuscript, and to Miss
Caroline M. McIlvaine for many courtesies.

C. B. R.

December, 1913




Table of Contents

                                                           PAGE

  THE MASTERS OF THE WILDERNESS                               1
      A Study of the Hudson's Bay Company
        from Its Origin to Modern Times

  THE BEAVER CLUB                                            55
      Some Social Aspects of the Fur Trade

  A DREAM OF EMPIRE                                          95
      The Adventures of Tonty in Old Louisiana




The Masters of the Wilderness

  A STUDY OF
  THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY
  FROM ITS ORIGIN TO
  MODERN TIMES

  "I am the land that listens, I am the land that broods;
  Steeped in eternal beauty, crystalline waters and woods.
  Long have I waited lonely, shunned as a thing accurst,
  Monstrous, moody, pathetic, the last of the lands and the first;
  Visioning camp-fires at twilight, sad with a longing forlorn,
  Feeling my womb o'er-pregnant with the seed of cities unborn.
  Wild and wide are my borders, stern as death is my sway,
  And I wait for the men who will win me--and I will not be won in a day."

  --Service, "The Law of the Yukon."




The Masters of the Wilderness[1]


The question of a Northwest Passage to India and the South Seas has
stimulated the mind and kindled the imagination of mankind for four
hundred years. From the very first a fascinating theory, it soon became
a necessary obsession, for the fierce activities of the triumphant Turks
rendered the usual routes to the Indies too perilous for commerce, and
Christian nations, especially Holland and England, turned with intense
eagerness to the solution of this problem. Defeated in the immediate
object, their efforts nevertheless exercised an incalculable influence
over the entire world. With the single exception of the cognate
adventure, the search for the North Pole, it is probable that no other
quest has added so immensely to those arts and industries which make for
the promotion of science and the advancement of civilization. That such
a passage actually existed has been recognized since the voyage of Sir
Edward Parry in 1820 and the fact was confirmed by the expedition of
McClure in 1857, yet the complete passage from sea to sea had never
succeeded until the recent memorable voyage of Captain Amundsen in
1903-6. Among the earlier navigators who received the crown of
immortality through their efforts to achieve this quest, none is more
meritoriously conspicuous than Henry Hudson, who in 1607 hammered his
way through the ice floes to 80 north latitude. Next he thought to
break through on the south, and in 1609 he discovered and explored the
Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, the harbor of New York, where he was
attacked by natives, and sailed up the Hudson River as far as the
present site of Albany. But the lure of the Northern route was strong
upon him, and in 1610 he undertook the voyage which was at the same time
the source of his greatest renown and the cause of his dreary death.

Passing through Hudson Straits, he entered the Bay which also bears his
name and guided his ship cautiously southward. Sustained by an
indomitable spirit, he rose superior to many difficulties and dangers,
and spent over a year exploring the harbors, inlets, and adjacent coasts
of this great inland sea. On attempting the homeward passage, however,
he found he had delayed too long, and his crew, already disaffected by
reason of the long voyage and the many strange hardships, suddenly
became enraged at Hudson on account of his irascible temper, and rose in
mutiny on June 11, 1611. They put Hudson, his little son, and five
others into a shallop with a small amount of ammunition and provisions
and sailed away.

In the narrative of this expedition written by Abaccus Prickett, one of
the mutineers who succeeded in reaching England after a wearisome and
perilous voyage, it is told how the old man, with set features and
flying gray locks, grimly made sail in pursuit of his ship until he was
dropped below the horizon and never seen again.

We now know only too well the barriers which lie in the path of the
Northwest Passage. Almost directly northeast of the mouth of the Fish
River which Lieutenants Back and Simpson both found, there lies a vast
mass of ice which can neither move toward Behring Strait on account of
the shallow water, nor to Baffin Bay on account of the narrowness and
crookedness of the channels. We know also, from the reports of the Low
expedition of 1903-4, that there are two open currents always flowing in
the straits that lead to Hudson Bay; one along the northern shore inward
and to the west, and one along the southern shore outward and eastward,
bearing the raft ice of the Bay. These currents are so suitably disposed
that by a slight change of course ships can navigate the straits and
have the benefit of the current in either direction and sail with the
ice floes rather than against them. We also know that Hudson Bay is
simply a vast whirlpool 800 miles wide by 1,000 miles long which has
been cut, grooved, and gouged out of the solid rock by those two
powerful currents which bear in their puissant grasp the raft ice of the
Arctic Sea, the ice of prehistoric ages.

Like a giant sand-blast these huge masses of ice have been whirled
grinding and eroding around the Bay only to be disgorged through Hudson
Straits upon the bosom of the broad Atlantic. Into this channel of rock,
the Hudson Straits, 450 miles long, is jammed from the west, churned
together and concentrated the area of an ice continent, and up this
channel from the east runs a "tide-rip" thirty-five feet high. When the
"tide-rip" and the ice meet there occurs what the old navigators of the
Hudson's Bay Company called "the furious overfall."

With difficulty one resists the temptation to pursue this interesting
subject farther, but this is not the story that we started to relate, it
is merely the scene of its beginning.

Impressed by the reports which various navigators brought back from this
region, a company was formed for the purpose of exploiting the shores of
the Bay and the wooded fastnesses of the interior. The company was
organized originally at the instance of the French explorers, Radisson
and his brother-in-law, Groseilliers, whose visit to the Hudson Bay
country had revealed its boundless possibilities. Disappointed in
enlisting an interest in the venture in Montreal, they applied to Sir
George Carteret, who was then in America as a member of the Royal
Commission appointed to settle a number of disputed questions between
New York and New England.

It was through his influence that they met the King in 1666, but it was
only after a long delay, and some say not without insistence on the
part of Louise Querouaille, the King's mistress, who was also under deep
obligations to Lord Arlington, that the charter was granted by Charles
II in May, 1670. Quite early in the venture the promoters had obtained
audience with Prince Rupert, who with historical fieriness entered
enthusiastically into the undertaking and became the first Governor of
the "Honorable Hudson's Bay Company." There is an uncontradicted story
to the effect that the Prince received a lump sum of 10,000 for his
interest and influence in securing the charter, but we much prefer to
believe that his interest was engaged and his romantic mind inflamed by
the adventurous nature of the project, rather than by monetary
considerations. When the Prince died he was succeeded in the
governorship by the Duke of York, the King's brother, who afterward
resigned to become James II of England. The Duke indeed had been
associated with the adventure from the beginning and the records show
that his was the first name on the stock book, while opposite the name
on the credit side of the account it states: "By a share presented to
him in the stock and adventure by the Governor and Company, 300." We
learn that among the many subscribers to the stock were to be found the
King's cousin, his brother, afterward King James, the Duke of Albemarle,
General Monk, who was largely responsible for the restoration of
Charles, Henry, Earl of Arlington, a member of the ruling cabal, and
Anthony, Earl of Shaftsbury, the versatile minister of the King, all of
whom became directors in the new undertaking.

In their application for a charter the Company had urged the
desirability of such a corporation as they contemplated as a means of
(1) continuing the search for the Northwest Passage, (2) that in the
progress of trade with the nations the blessings of civilization and
religion should be brought to the Indians, and finally (3) that
settlements could be affected to the glory of the King. We shall learn
in the course of the narrative how quickly the Company lost sight of
these high aims in the pursuit of a less noble purpose. The right of the
King to grant such an instrument may be seriously questioned, but there
was apparently no doubt in his own mind, and without evident qualms of
conscience the "Merry Monarch" disposed of an expanse equal to the
United States, except Alaska, "To our dear and entirely beloved cousin
Prince Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, etc. (with
the others), constituting the Governor and Company of Adventurers
trading into Hudson's Bay." The charter states that the incorporators
deserve the privileges because they "have at their own great cost and
charges undertaken an expedition for Hudson's Bay in the northwest parts
of America, for a discovery of a new passage into the South Sea and for
the finding of some trade for furs, minerals and other considerable
commodities and by such their undertakings, have already made such
discoveries as to encourage them to proceed farther in pursuance of
their said design, by means whereof there may probably arise great
advantage to us and our kingdom."

With truly royal, if unconscious, generosity Charles gives "The whole
trade of all those seas, streights and bays, rivers, lakes, creeks and
sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall lie within the entrance of the
streights commonly called Hudson's Streights, together with all the
lands, countries and territories upon the coasts and confines of the
seas, streights, bays, lakes and rivers, creeks and sounds aforesaid
which are not now actually possessed by any of our subjects, _or by the
subjects of any other Christian Prince or State_."

Now the country watered by rivers flowing into Hudson Bay extended two
hundred miles to the east, three hundred miles to the south, and sixteen
hundred miles to the west, although by the terms of the charter it might
extend to China as men at that time undoubtedly believed. From near the
western end of Lake Superior, streams find their way by Rainy Lake and
Lake of the Woods to Lake Winnipeg and thence by Nelson River to Hudson
Bay. From southwestern Minnesota the "Red River of the North" flows into
Lake Winnipeg and thence into Hudson Bay. Hither also flows the mighty
Saskatchewan, which, wide as the Mississippi, draws out its lingering
and serpentine course for sixteen hundred miles from its origin in the
very heart of the Rocky Mountains to that huge collecting basin, Lake
Winnipeg, where its turbulent flood first finds temporary peace. This
vast extent of territory was quite commensurate with the powers and
privileges conferred, for the charter also reads that the "fisheries
within Hudson's Streights, the minerals including gold, silver, gems and
precious stones, shall be possessed by the Company." The whole land was
to be held in "free and common socage," that is, as absolute
proprietors. The Company was empowered to make laws not only for its own
servants, but having force over all persons upon the lands. And further,
"To judge all persons belonging to said Governor or Company, or that
shall live under them, in all cases civil or criminal according to the
laws of this kingdom and to execute justice accordingly."

"The Company is empowered to send ships of war, men or ammunition into
their plantations and appoint commanders and officers and even to issue
to them their commissions."

To make peace or war with any non-Christian people.

To build forts and fortifications and, what was more to the point, they
were to have "the whole and only liberty of Trade and Traffick," and
free power was given to seize upon the persons of all who might attempt
to violate this provision.

This, then, was the origin of that famous Company which for two hundred
years held lordly sway over the "wintry lakes and boundless forests of
the Canadas, exercising a power more absolute, if possible, than that of
the potentates of the East India Company over the voluptuous climes and
magnificent realms of the Orient."

It will be interesting now to consider briefly how rightfully Charles
indulged his kingly bounty. The bestowal of such great privileges as
those given to the Hudson's Bay Company may be accounted for in the
prevailing idea as to the royal prerogative, but even in those days the
grant was attacked and called invalid since it had not received the
sanction of Parliament. A most troublesome feature of the charter was
the exclusion of the "portion possessed by subjects of any other
Christian Prince or State."

At that time Canada was undeniably French and there was no distinct
boundary drawn between the territory of France on the south and that
granted to the English Company on the Bay, but in the contemporaneous
maps acknowledged as correct by both nations, the Saskatchewan and Red
Rivers were alike recognized as belonging to France, though both drained
into Hudson Bay. By the eighth article of the treaty of Ryswick in 1697,
the whole of Hudson Bay, excepting only Fort Albany, was recognized as
belonging to the Crown of France. The Company already somewhat uncertain
as to its rights did not feel easier under the terms of the treaty and
considerable anxiety was produced by the continual attacks of the French
upon the Company's forts, which had been so far successful as almost to
dispossess the English. In the same year that this treaty had been
signed and by the terms of which each side was to keep what each then
occupied, the indefatigable Iberville had conducted an expedition into
the Bay, and secured possession of all the forts including even the long
defiant Nelson (or York) after a brilliant naval engagement. But in
spite of the attacks by Iberville and others, in spite of the capture
and demolition of its forts, the Company held grimly to its privileges
which every year of possession bound closer.

For the first time in 1713 by the treaty of Utrecht was a portion of the
shores of the Bay ceded to England. Thus forty-three years after the
granting of the charter and twenty-eight years after the death of the
grantor, could the English claim undisputed possession of a _part_ of
Hudson Bay, and then only was such a grant legally possible which
Charles had made to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670.

Throughout it all, however, the disastrous results of actual and of
threatened treaty action never betrayed the dignity of the directorate
into clamor nor unseemly lamentation. Delegation after delegation, to be
sure, besought and frequently received the benefit of royal influence
and protection in the early history of the adventure, while in later
times the best counselors of the United Kingdom fought its legal battles
in court, parliament, and forum, but from first to last the inner
workings of the Company were consistently and carefully veiled in
obscurity.

The meeting of the directors in the old Hudson Bay House on Fenchurch
Street, London, were invariably conducted with the utmost secrecy and
ceremony. The officers arrived and departed like conspirators and held
their sessions in the semi-gloom which the few scattered candles could
only accentuate. The solemnity and secrecy of these occasions was such
that, as might be expected, Dame Rumor was soon busily spreading
exaggerated and fanciful reports of the unknown events which took place
behind the closed doors. These reports delivered in mysterious whispers
and accompanied by significant shrugs of the shoulders generally
referred to the enormous financial success of the adventure. Doubtless
much of the secrecy was due to the weight of the responsibility which
each of the directors felt in the gigantic undertaking, but also it was
wise business policy.

Let us now look forward for a moment to a consideration of the results
of the enterprise and learn if possible _why_ the Company should
maintain a dense cloud over its American dominions, and _why_ any
attempt to disperse the cloud and allow light to fall upon the mystery
beneath should be met with serious obstacles and not infrequently with
death. Let us take advantage of our privilege as narrators and peer for
an instant through the obscurity which has hidden, as much as may be,
the financial operations of this Company which have been conducted so
quietly and shrewdly for two hundred and forty years.

The Company was originally capitalized for 10,500, and on this amount
it admittedly earned 125 per cent in the next twenty years; in 1690 the
stock was trebled, and thirty years later the directors were startled
out of their habitual calm and caution by the general excitement
attending the South Sea Bubble and the stock was again trebled; that
this was not, however, an example of high finance is shown by the fact
that they paid a 25 per cent dividend on the trebled stock in the same
year. From 1690 to 1800, a period of 110 years, the stock earned,
according to the admission of Governor Pelly before a Legislative
committee, from 60 per cent to 70 per cent a year, the stock being again
trebled during this period and an increase of 9,450 added to the
trebled amount. When we consider that these figures have been yielded up
under extreme pressure by parties interested in their concealment, it
is not probable that they are in any degree overstated, but rather the
contrary.

According to Beckles Wilson, the value of the merchandise sent to the
Bay in 1676 was 650 sterling, while the furs brought back sold for
19,000, a profit of nearly 3,000 per cent. In 1748 the value of goods
sent out amounted to 5,000 sterling, and the furs received in exchange
sold in England for 30,000 or 600 per cent profit; the profit in dull
times according to the same authority being 40 per cent on a paid-up
capital. From 1800 to 1821, owing to the competition of other companies,
especially of its energetic and aggressive rival, the Northwest Company,
the stock paid a trivial 4 per cent for sixteen years and nothing at all
for five years. This was the period, however, in which the Company,
constantly harried by its unrelenting opponent, expanded most broadly.
It broke away from its traditional policy of keeping forts in the
vicinity of the Great Bay only, and threw out a network of posts, that
covered every important point on the principal trails and water courses
of the Northwest.

In 1821 the Northwest Company was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company,
and upon the new and enlarged capital of 400,000 they received an
annual profit of 250,000.

With this knowledge we cannot wonder that the directors came and went
with the stealthiness of thieves, nor that they resented the attempts
that were continually made to penetrate the gloom and obscurity in which
they had carefully enveloped their activities in the adventurous,
lawless, and fascinating fur trade.

The executive staff of the Company, elected by the stockholders,
consisted of the governor and seven directors, who ruled with an
imperious hand over their more than kingly domain. They controlled the
annual fur sales and apportioned the dividends, they established forts
and appointed and removed governors, they made war and peace not only
with "non-Christian people," as provided in the charter, but with their
at least equally Christian competitors. They purchased ships and sent
them laden with supplies annually to the shores of the Bay whence the
cargoes were distributed to the interior.

Neither friend nor enemy succeeded in disturbing or altering their
authority. Under their jealous eyes every detail of the adventure was
industriously worked out.

The chief factors were directly responsible to the board, and were
frequently ordered before it to explain or justify their actions and to
receive the discipline which the board was not backward in applying. A
most servile obedience was exacted at all times. The factors in turn
were not unready to hand down the law with undiminished force to the
Company's servants, both within and without the fort. Dependent as they
were for supplies upon the annual ship and exposed in the interval to
manifold dangers, the little isolated garrisons were expected to possess
a high degree of individual responsibility, together with a loyal
subordination to the lawful head of the post. In each fort the ranks
were kept with almost military precision from governor or chief factor
through chief trader, clerk, apprentice clerk, postmaster and
interpreters to laborers and Indians. The apprentice clerks were engaged
for a period of five years, which promised in from fifteen to twenty
years to bring the apprentice to a clerkship with the munificent income
of $200 per year. The first five years were invariably spent at a remote
and desolate post where, cut off from home or kindred, he learned to
look to the Company as a dog to his master. He thus became bound to the
Company for life, since other avenues of business were effectually
closed to him, and progress was possible only along the line of Company
promotion, which involved a lifetime. He embarked upon a career in which
his position was as definitely ordained, his course as perfectly
controlled and his escape as improbable as if he belonged to a sodality
of feudal knights or had membership in a religious brotherhood. The
personnel of the forts was recruited almost entirely from the Highlands
of Scotland and the Orkney Isles, and therein the Company showed great
business acumen, since by nature, education, and early environment they
possessed the taciturnity, the thrift, the love for solitude and
wildness, the simplicity and sturdiness of character which eminently
fitted them for the arduous and lonesome life which they were called
upon to endure. They dwelt in the grim and grinding wilderness inhabited
by savage beasts and still more savage men, and against such adversaries
they were expected to hazard their lives in ceaseless warfare to wring
out profits for the Company. As they were liable to be sent at a
moment's notice from the Atlantic to the Pacific, they were expected to
be self-reliant and resolute in the presence of danger to themselves or
to the property in their charge and keep friendly with a notoriously
uncertain and childish people. The spirit of monopoly, the golden
character of silence, the need of being secretive and uncommunicative,
was instilled into every clerk, trapper, and trader. At length after
thirty-five or forty years of faithful service, the clerk became a
factor, and as factor he secured command of a post, be it on the Arctic
shore, on the plains of Assiniboia, or beside a rushing stream that
forms a highway to the St. Lawrence, to the Pacific or to Hudson Bay;
the command was his and he ruled like a proconsul over an immense
territory interlaced with trails and waterways and inhabited by
barbarous tribes. Surrounded by his Indian vassalage, and in the company
of one or two white men, the factor lived his life until such time as
his length of service permitted him to retire on a pension and return
to his native land.

On a little knoll, a hundred yards or so from the water, stands the
factor's house, and arranged in the form of a square are the other
buildings of the post, consisting of the general store, the warehouse,
the blacksmith shop, the canoe house, and the carpenter shop, all of
which in the olden time were surrounded by high, pointed and
not-easily-to-be-scaled palisades, dominated by a great flagstaff in the
midst of the square, from the top of which for honored guest or festal
day the banner of the Company waved its lazy folds over a strange and
heterogeneous population. The close relationship of the Crown and
Company was shown on the crimson field where the Union Jack and the
initials of the great company occupy adjoining but diagonal quadrants.

The life at the forts became a routine like a frontier army post. In
winter snowshoeing, trapping, and hunting could be made incidental to
supplying the factory with fresh meat, while the evenings were spent in
chess, backgammon, and whist when players enough could be obtained. In
summer canoe sailing and dog racing were cherished sports, but the great
event of the year was the arrival or departure of the brigade. This was
the fleet of three or four "North-canoes," each manned by eight men and
all under the guidance of a conductor. The brigades took out the fur
from the fort and brought back supplies from the coast, a journey that
sometimes required two years for its completion. The "North-canoes" had
skilful men in bow and stern at double the wages of the rest, who were
responsible for the canoe and its contents to the conductor of the
brigade, or to the head of the expedition, when two or more brigades
traveled in company. The freight of these canoes would consist of sixty
pieces or packages of merchandise weighing from 90 to 100 pounds each,
together with provisions to the amount of 1,000 pounds. Added to this
was the weight of eight men and the 40 pounds of "duffle" or personal
baggage which each was allowed to carry, and the whole weight would,
therefore, exceed 8,000 pounds, or possibly four tons as an average.
When the brigade arrived or departed all was excitement, since it
brought the isolated post into touch with the great world without and
would bring back from the coast a fund of new experiences for winter's
consumption. Sometimes on the return of the brigade there would be found
a file of newspapers a year old, and these would be opened day by day on
the corresponding date and the world's news of the previous year eagerly
followed. Thus each lonely post constituted an oasis of civilization in
the midst of the wilderness, a peripheral ganglion in more or less close
communication with the central nervous system.

That the mind was not always satisfied nor the emotions benumbed by
this primitive existence to the degree desired by the Company, and that
the factor many times repented his contract, may be learned from the
story of McLean, who was forty years in the service; he says:

"The history of my career may serve as a warning to those who may be
disposed to enter the Hudson Bay Company's service. They may learn that
from the moment they embark in the Company's canoes at Lachine or in
their ships at Gravesend, they bid adieu to all that civilized man most
values on earth. They bid adieu to their families and friends, probably
forever, for if they remain long enough to attain the promotion that
allows them the privilege of revisiting their native land (twenty or
twenty-five years), what changes does not this life exhibit in a much
shorter time? They bid adieu to all the comforts and conveniences of
civilization to vegetate at some solitary post, hundreds of miles
perhaps from any other human habitation, save the wigwam of the savage,
without any society other than that of their own thoughts or of the two
or three humble persons who share their exile. They bid adieu to all
refinement and cultivation, not infrequently becoming semi-barbarians,
so altered in habits and sentiments, that they not only become attached
to savage life, but lose all relish for any other." Thus the white man.

The reaction of the Indian to his environment is no less interesting
than its effect upon the Anglo-Saxon. In each race special qualities
were developed according to the needs of the Company.

The tradition of the Company was to keep the Indian a hunter. There was
never any effort wasted in encouraging the native to agriculture or any
industry. Tribal strife also was frowned upon, since it prevented
hunting and trapping and therefore interfered with the interests of the
Company, and no Indian uprising has ever marred the long suzerainty. "To
make a good collection of fur was the chief aim; for this the Indian
required no education, for this the wandering habit needed to be
cultivated rather than discouraged, and for this it was well to have the
home ties as brittle as possible, hence the teepee and the tent were
favored for the Indian hunter rather than the permanent camp or the log
house." Originally of a more pacific and docile nature than the fierce
tribes farther south, they soon lost their initiative and became
employees and dependents of the Company.

To stand well with the Company became not only a desirable thing among
the natives, on account of the rewards it produced, but it became
essential to the preservation of life, for the old arts were forgotten
in the use of the new facilities furnished by the post. The system
worked admirably. The hunter was given credit by the factor for about
$150.00 worth of goods, and woe betide him if he did not return at the
end of the season with fur enough to cancel the indebtedness. In case of
accident or a run of hard luck, provided he bore a good reputation, he
would be staked again, but otherwise he could secure no more supplies
until his obligation had been taken up or vouched for by some
compassionate relative; neither would it avail to go to another post,
for he would find his reputation there ahead of him.

Occasionally an Indian vassal feels that he has been unjustly treated,
and filled with his sense of injury, he will march off indignantly at
the head of his family and attach himself to an adjacent post, hoping
thereby to injure his former factor. In the great Northland all roads
that carry furs lead to Hudson Bay, so that from the Company's
standpoint the Indian is welcome to live near any post, provided only
that he brings in _fur_. When the furs are in the hands of the Indian,
the Company will do the rest. The great seal of the Company bears the
motto _pro pelle cutem_, or "skin for skin," a phrase which has been
variously interpreted by those most interested.

The price charged the Indians for goods has always been as large as the
amount paid for furs has been small, but this is the rule always where,
with ostentatious righteousness, the white man takes up his burden at
the expense of the unwilling native, or in the guise of trade with the
ignorant or dependent tribes whom he benevolently chooses to civilize.

Having secured his goods, mended the canoes, and bidden farewell to his
friends, the Indian starts with his family in the late fall for the
hunting-grounds. "Day after day they labor with paddle or tracking line,
pole or tumpstrap, or occasionally spreading their blankets as sails to
a favorable breeze. They live on the country through which they travel,
snow flurries come and go, ice forms and thaws, dry leaves rustle upon
the floor of the forest. The weather is cold and exhilarating, days of
glorious sunshine and nights of hard frost." Their way takes them over
portages that lead across steep and rocky hills, through wild gorges and
over rank muskegs. Along beautiful little streams and tranquil lakes
they drive their canoes swiftly to the rhythm of paddle handles bumping
on the gunwales and to the music of blades that swish through swirling
waters, leaving little gurgling wakes. They glide on beneath overhanging
trees, past a moose-trodden beach or a bear-trampled bank. Down wild
rapids, across foaming eddies, through endless forests of conifer and
birch they sweep with the current as through a canyon deeply carved of
malachite and marble. Through this enchanting panorama they speed to the
end of their voyage; doubtless to a point where a little river breaks
the shore of a lonely lake, where furtive shapes steal silently to
drink and phantom hunters roam in birch and cedar solitudes. Here with
long spruce saplings they frame the winter home, covering the naked
poles with birch bark or animal skins, and warming the tepee, as it is
now called, by means of a little conical fire within. The grim Northland
winter is spent in hunting, trapping, and curing the skins, until the
groans of the ice-covered streams and the lisp of the snow-mantled firs
inform the hunter that spring is at hand and the way to the post open.
In response to these airy summons the canoes are loaded down with the
pelts of beaver and bear, lynx and marten, and other denizens of the
wilderness; the covering is removed from the tepee, the spruce poles are
left standing like a naked skeleton, and are quickly lost to view as the
Indian swings into the icy stream and starts back to the post. When the
season has been good and the hunter fortunate, he will bring in from
$300 to $600 worth of furs, and he feels more than ever the magic of
spring as he paddles lightheartedly down the river to his summer camp.

The method of trade with the Indians was developed as early as 1690 and
quickly became a science. The tribes brought down their skins to the
post and delivered them through a small aperture in the side of the
storehouse. They entered the stockade three or four at a time and traded
one by one at the window over which the chief trader presided. The
actual dealing with the natives was restricted to the two officials
known as traders, and none of the Company's other servants was permitted
to deal with them except on rare occasions. The trade was necessarily
carried on mostly during the summer when the rivers were free from ice,
but sometimes when the hunting-ground was near, the Indians would come
in during the winter with snowshoes and dog sleds. When the Indian was
dissatisfied with the price offered for his furs, they were passed back
to him. No compulsion ostensibly was employed; he might either keep his
skins or starve, for the trader knew that the struggles of the Indian
were in vain, and like a charmed bird he must ultimately drop into the
always open maw of the Company.

The furs were weighed on a long-armed balance, such as even yet may be
seen at the Astor House at Mackinac by those who visit the Old Post. The
visitor there may also see an old iron press which was used in binding
down the pelts into packs of 40 to 100 pounds each, for convenient
management in the brigades of canoes which once a year carried to the
coast the spoil of the forests and the streams and returned laden with
supplies from the ships.

The Indian received a wooden peg for each "castor" in value of his
winter catch--the "castor" or "made beaver" being the medium of exchange
and valued at one to two shillings per pound. The beaver, which was
most sought for originally, is now almost as extinct as the buffalo, and
its place has been taken by the marten.

The thought instinctively arises that the Company took a great risk in
thus trusting the native sense of honor in giving credit for the year's
supplies, but it was very rare for the Indian to fail to appear, and
only did he fail when very unusual obstacles were encountered. When he
did not return to the post, but disposed of his furs to the free trader
or a rival company, a detail of two or three of his tribe were sent
after him with instructions not to return without bringing him back for
judgment. Eight months or a year might possibly elapse before he was
traced to his remote retreat in the bush, but eventually he or his scalp
was surely brought in by his haggard and wayworn captors.

The Indians, always the most numerous of the Company's servants, lost
much of their importance in course of time. The employees of the Company
were originally Indians and Highland Scotch, but lured by the love of
adventure and the "bright face of danger," gradually there crept in from
the south the _voyageurs_, _coureurs de bois_, and half-breeds from the
French settlements in Lower Canada, who took to the wild life with the
utmost avidity and combined the skill and woodcraft of the Indian with
the happy, dashing, and debonair ways of the French. The "half-breeds"
constitute at present a very important part of the Canadian population
and deserve some reference to their origin.

From the very first it had been customary among the English employees,
and is yet for that matter, to take what was called a "country wife"
from among the tribes around the fort, and when the trader left the
country he always made provision for the support of his "country wife"
and the invariably numerous family. These marriages between the whites
and the natives were so common and so fruitful that sometimes in later
years the entire summer population around the fort could with difficulty
show a single full-blood Indian, and some entire tribes at present can
show no single individual of pure descent.

There is an account in Irving's _Astoria_ of one of these marriages
where the diplomatic McDougall, a chief factor, thinking to improve his
business by means of an Indian alliance, conceived the idea of seeking
the hand of a native princess, the daughter of the one-eye Comcomly who
held sway over the fishing tribe of the Chinooks. "By conference after
conference and multiple negotiations the preliminaries were at length
settled and the chief promised to bring to the fort his daughter, who is
represented as having one of the flattest and most aristocratic heads in
the tribe. The worthy sachem landed in princely style, arrayed in a
bright blue blanket and a red breech clout, with an extra quantity of
paint and feathers, and attended by a train of half-naked warriors and
nobles. A horse was in waiting for the princess, and mounting her behind
one of the clerks she was conveyed, coy but compliant, to the fortress,
where she was received with devout, though decent, joy by her expectant
bridegroom. Her bridal adornments, it is true, at first caused some
little dismay, for she had painted and anointed herself for the occasion
according to the Chinook custom. However, by generous use of soap and
water, she was freed from all adventitious tint and fragrance and
entered into the nuptial state the cleanest princess that had ever been
known among the somewhat unctuous tribe of the Chinooks."

When a particularly punctilious factor could not bring himself to
consider a native marriage in this fashion and his long absence from
home had obliterated the memory of his earlier sweethearts, he took
refuge in that ever-present caterer to all the necessities of life and
ordered a wife from the Company with less concern than he would order a
new axe. In one instance the safe arrival of the wife thus ordered was
acknowledged as follows: "Received, one wife in fair condition; hope she
will prove good, though she is certainly a rum one to look at."

The usual method of securing a wife was much more summary and far less
ceremonious. A few insignificant presents were given in exchange and
the native parent at once became the proud and morganatic father-in-law.
As a result of this custom the number of half-breeds, both French and
English, rapidly increased. These people possessed the fierceness of
their Indian mothers, together with the high intelligence and capacity
for affairs of their white sires and for many years worked admirably
into the pattern of the Company. Eventually however they wearied of the
exactions and impositions, and in a later movement of this drama we
shall meet them again burning with indignation against the Company. The
Indians in the meantime were subjected for decade after decade to
unceasing pressure and discipline that gradually weeded out the old
ideas and habits. The characters that would not mold went down and a
distinctive individual grew up that was known as the "Hudson Bay
Indian," an individual that possessed, in a remarkable degree, the
highly essential quality of woodcraft, together with a docility, a
reliability, and a sense of duty that made him absolutely irreplaceable.

Until the arrival of the missionary, the trend of Indian character was
quite steadily upward in all those qualities that make him a steady and
efficient fur collector. Considering the conditions and the general
attitude of the Company, it is hardly surprising that, in spite of the
terms of the charter, so many difficulties were placed in the way of
the missionary, whom pressure from home eventually compelled the Company
to receive. This opposition to the missionaries is said to have inspired
the remark that the initials H.B.C., that appear in the lower and outer
quarter of the far-flung banner of the Company, should signify "Here
before Christ."

It has been claimed since, as a proof of their Christian character, that
the Indians rarely murder, and that large crimes are uncommon, but so it
was, except in warfare, before the missionary arrived, and since then
the Indian, sure of absolution, has become a sneak and a hypocrite, and
does not hesitate to commit theft and many other small crimes. The
effect produced by two missions, such as the Catholic Church and Church
of England, when they were located at the same post, was always
subversive.

The missionaries at any rate have always earnestly and unitedly opposed
the use of whisky in the fur trade. The Company also denounced the
custom in public with much noise, but secretly it connived at the
distribution of whisky by its servants. This fact is frankly admitted by
every chief factor who has left records of his stewardship. It certainly
was freely used during the great rivalry of the companies, and it is
quite believable that earlier and even in later times these shrewd
traders never lost a pelt for lack of a drink of whisky. It is largely
true at present that the Indian cannot obtain whisky from the posts, and
while this is pointed out as a virtue, it may be added that in this
respect the Company is only obeying a stringent law of the Dominion
which forbids the sale of liquor by anybody to the Indians. Neither the
missionary nor the Company ever in any degree influenced the Indian in
this respect; the only way to secure abstinence was the total
deprivation which the Dominion enforced. The missionary work has
progressed quite rapidly since 1850, and now the natives about Hudson
Bay, Lake Winnipeg, on the Mackenzie River, throughout British Columbia,
and on the great savannahs of Assiniboia are largely Christianized. The
missionaries also, as the Company feared, became a means for the
distribution of information from the interior. With the knowledge of the
abundant returns that anyone could secure in the fur trade, it is not
surprising that opposition to the grasping monopoly should arise and
many, either as individuals or as companies, attempted to share in the
rich spoil of the Hudson Bay Territory.

Bryce states that there are frequent allusions in the minutes of the
Company, during the first fifty years of its existence, to the arrest
and punishment even of servants and employees who secreted valuable furs
on their homeward voyage for the purpose of disposing of them.

Until the last thirty-five years, moreover, the Company maintained its
privileges, with the greatest firmness and success. For over a hundred
years from its origin, that is, until the formation of the Northwest
Company, no rivalry worthy of the name arose to cause annoyance, and in
consequence the forts still remained in close proximity to Hudson Bay,
to which the natives for hundreds of miles east, west, north, and south
would repair for trade. Ship after ship laden with priceless furs drove
steadily eastward, and from the public sales a golden stream flowed
steadily into the coffers of the Company. We can easily imagine the
great concern of the stockholders in the olden days upon the arrival at
Gravesend of the annual packet, freighted with fruits of the adventure,
and the pleasant reaction when the treasure was removed from the great
hold of the ship, and piled high in the spacious warehouses of the
Company, there to await a favorable time for sale at public auction. It
was at Gravesend, also, that the outward-bound ships were piled deep
with muzzle-loading fowling-pieces and ammunition, with brass kettles,
knives, hatchets, tobacco, glass beads, flints, mirrors, and red lead,
and thence they sailed regularly, about the first of June, and were not
heard from again until October.

When the ships arrived at the bay, the forts were visited in turn, their
stores replenished, and their furs taken on board. Each fort was
charged with the goods delivered and credited with commodities returned,
all in "castors" or "made beaver" skins. For many years, this simple
method was sufficient, but when competition arose and the forts spread
to the heads of the rivers, to the interior, and to the passes in the
mountains, it became necessary to make up the supplies for the different
forts and send them by paddle and portage to the many dependent posts,
hundreds or even thousands of miles in the "hinterland," and the
discipline of the Company was so excellent and so exacting that to this
day the evidence of a successful trip in the great Canadian wilderness
in the mind of the Indian guide is when he can say to his employer that
the journey has been made "without breaking a canoe or losing a pack."

Besides preserving in the utmost secrecy the true nature of its
possessions, the Company actively proclaimed the adverse and repellent
story that the entire domain was a vast and desolate waste frozen by the
icy blasts of winter, covered by snow, devoid of food and shelter,
forbidding in aspect, the soil rocky and sterile, and inhabited only by
ferocious beasts and not less savage Indians. Everywhere are found
allusions to the dreadful dangers and hazards to life which the traveler
encounters who ventures into this menacing domain. Traveling was made
difficult, and the presence of strangers was a source of irritation and
resentment. The "free trader," that knight-errant of the forests, was
constantly exposed to the Company's displeasure, for trading in the
territory as we have seen was absolutely forbidden, and the "free
trader" intercepted the natives on the journey to the fort and secured
the precious furs. Many devices were employed to deter, circumvent, or
destroy him. By one method a couple of Indians were put upon his trail
to keep him moving and to warn off the natives from commerce with him.
They interfered with his food supply, broke his traps, crept up and
destroyed his snowshoes, and stole or killed his sled dogs. In the end
he left the country, or starved, resistance being immediately fatal. Or,
again, he was captured and brought to the post, and compelled to promise
to leave the country forever, his return being equivalent to a death
sentence. Occasionally, he would be conveyed fifty or a hundred miles
from the post under guard and then released with a few ounces of
pemmican, his gun, and two loads of ammunition. Thus "without the
shedding of blood" many a trader has been sent on _la longue traverse_,
as it was named, but few ever lived to reach the settlement. When
persistent, the "free trader" never returned to his home, and later his
bones might be found whitening near the site of his little camp.
Accidents are sudden, fatalities are not investigated, and death ever
stalks in the wake of adventure. Many might suspect, but none ever knew
what mysterious agency had caused his death.

But the methods employed against "free traders" singly were powerless
against them in combination.

Far to the south, where the mighty St. Lawrence boils in fury among the
sunken rocks, the city of Montreal was slowly assuming a dominant place,
and from this stronghold in the south an aggressive and persistent foe
began to percolate through the rivers, lakes, and meandering streams and
through the pathless forests, to demand battle from these "Lords of the
North." Duluth had explored the north shore of Lake Superior and traded
with the Indians around Lake Nepigon. Verandrye, and his sons, still in
search of the elusive Northwest Passage, this time by way of the Great
Lakes, had pushed up through the Rainy Lake and River, to Lake of the
Woods and thence on to Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan, their hearts
beating high with hope as expanse after expanse of water stretched out
before them until they faced defeat and death at the foothills of the
Rocky Mountains.

With the capture of Quebec by Wolfe in 1759 the English were left in
sole and undisputed possession of the North country, and first Alexander
Henry and afterward Finlay began to trade in the Lake Superior region.
Following them came Frobisher, Cadot, Pangman, McTavish, Mackenzie, and
other "free traders," who a few years after (1783-84) combined their
efforts under the name of the Northwest Company with headquarters at
Montreal. With the appearance of this determined foe, an astonishing
activity began in exploration and in opening up new avenues for trade.
Except for the ill-fated voyage of the "Albany" and the "Discovery"
shortly after the granting of the charter, no attempt had been made by
the Company to discover the Northwest Passage according to the terms of
the grant, until, goaded and shamed by enemies at home, the notable
expedition of Hearne was sent out in 1769, resulting in the discovery
and survey of the Coppermine River.

In 1789, five years after the formation of the Northwest Company,
Mackenzie, one of the enterprising partners, pushed north from the
"Northwester's" fort on Lake Atabasca, entered Great Bear Lake, and
thence passed down to the Arctic Ocean by the river which now bears his
name.

The old Company was then in a position where surrender or war to the
knife were the only alternatives. It chose the latter, and stretching
out its arms from the forts on Hudson Bay, it began to parallel the
aggressive actions of the Northwest Company and planted fort after fort
along the great trails and water highways of the vast interior, from the
Frozen Ocean to the sources of the Mississippi and from Hudson Bay to
the waters of the Western Sea. Many bloody battles were fought between
the employees of the rival companies, whose forts frequently were
located not more than two hundred yards apart. Meanwhile in England the
officers of the Company, whom Lord Bolingbroke, pestered to madness, had
called the "smug and ancient gentlemen," brought every influence to bear
at court to secure aid in the maintenance of the monopoly and assistance
in preventing its infringement.

Spurred into action by the ceaseless activity and encroachment of its
great rival, the Company now shook off the sloth of a hundred years,
during which abundant dividends had checked the ambition and restrained
the imagination of the men at the head of affairs, and for the first
time made bold and vigorous war for the retention of its inheritance.
The deeds of audacity and valor, of fortitude and unwearied endeavor
which were performed by the rivals during the next thirty years will
always live among the most thrilling adventures that ever graced the
romantic and enthralling pages of history, and might well take rank with
the strenuous deeds of the old Homeric era.

During this short period Mackenzie finally succeeded after incredible
hardships in crossing the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific shore (1793).
Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific by way of Columbia (1805). Simon
Frazer discovered and explored the river that bears his name and also
reached the Pacific (1808). David Thompson, by way of the Saskatchewan
and Columbia, and the Astorians, by the overland route, both reached the
Pacific in the same year (1811). These hardy and adventurous spirits
have all left chronicles of their exploits that are well worth perusal.
Absorbing as fiction and fascinating by reason of the romantic
associations, the career of each stands boldly forth and challenges our
admiration as an epic of human endeavor.

Chains of forts were interwoven in a vast web across the face of the
Northland, the game was wantonly destroyed, and only the Indians thrived
while the giants cast dice with fate.

In 1816 the great rivals had absorbed or ruined eleven other
partnerships and were themselves on the verge of destruction from the
force and fury of their long and sanguinary battle. Affairs then
culminated in the massacre of Governor Semple of the Hudson's Bay
Company with twenty of his followers by the half-breeds and Indians in
the service of the Northwest Company. This occurred at Seven Oaks in the
midst of the harassed Red River settlement. Both companies recoiled in
horror from this deed. Both now recognized that a treaty or compromise
in some form was absolutely imperative. Happily a truce was arranged
through the intervention of Hon. Edward Ellice, and then in 1821 the
Northwest Company was absorbed and the united interests were placed
under the management of Governor Simpson, one of the great men of the
Hudson's Bay Company. The old corporation again found itself in full and
complete control. By this merger the Company was provided with a vastly
increased number of men and forts and every facility for the pursuit of
trade. By combining the influence of the old and new, they again secured
legal recognition of their monopoly of the fur trade, not only over the
region of Hudson Bay which they already owned, but also over the entire
Pacific and Arctic watersheds.

A period of prosperity and romantic adventure followed. On the western
shore of Lake Superior, thirty miles north of the international boundary
line, was located Fort William, the principal post of the confederated
companies, and every year the chief factors and chief traders from all
the interior forts repaired thither to meet in general council the
partners from Montreal. These expeditions were conducted with much
ceremony and resembled the progress of a Highland chieftain with his
numerous, if ragged, retinue.

No splendid ostentation was possible; no glitter and sheen save that of
their weapons and paddles; no flaunting _guidon_ save only the banner of
the Company; no flourish of music save only the human voice signalized
the rapid march of these dour potentates of the wilderness. Yet even
with scanty accessories the half-breeds and Indians through temperament
and instinct were enabled to create a dashing and dramatic appearance.

Thus from the forts of the remote Pacific to the shores of Hudson Bay,
from the eternal ice of the North, where the Dance of the Dead Men sheds
a fitful light upon the long Arctic night, to the tumultuous floods of
the St. Lawrence, brigades of canoes might be seen in the spring of the
year converging toward the blue and icy waters of the Great Lake. The
high spirits of the _voyageurs_ kept the paddles flashing merrily, and
while the forests resounded with such songs as "_Malbrouck s'en va-t-en
guerre_" and "_A la claire fontaine_" the hardy canoe men would run the
rapids or track the canoes up the swift waters.

With packs ranging from one hundred to three hundred pounds suspended by
headstrap, or tumpline, they would run the portages with zeal and
good-natured rivalry. With one hundred and fifty pounds they would
traverse a nine-mile portage and return in six hours. When the brigades
arrived within a few hours of a post they camped until early the
following morning, and then dressing in their most picturesque apparel
with gaudy feathers and ribbons streaming from caps and garters and
singing their most rollicking song, they put the utmost vigor of their
sinewy arms into the bending paddles and swept madly down upon the
post. They arrived at the landing with speed unchecked, and while the
spectator held his breath in anticipation of seeing them dashed to
pieces, the canoe in mid-career was brought to a full stop in the space
of a few inches by a powerful and united back stroke. Here discipline
was relaxed, drinking was the order of the day, and even the lordly
partners, their business council concluded, entered upon such
enthusiastic and uproarious revels that their occasional echoes still
rebound from the cliffs and heights of Thunder Bay to far distant
Montreal.

In considering the decline of the "Great Company," one has only to
contemplate the slow decay of a romantic ideal fraught with high and
adventurous possibilities and the ultimate lapse into a crass
commercialism. In this chronicle there is no opportunity to exhibit
magnificent buildings ornamented with a wealth of architecture nor
innumerable armies winning great victories, neither gorgeous decorations
nor oriental splendor, but the attention must be directed to a supreme
creation of nature decorated with boundless forests and limitless
plains, upon whose vast expanse mighty rivers and magnificent lakes have
been poured with a prodigal hand and in whose very midst man, uninspired
man, has toiled and moiled, has wrought and riven, and has done his
deathless deeds in the solitude and in the silence, unheralded and
unseen, in true heroic measure.

In the last chapter, it is necessary to trace the decline of the
romance, the elision of the poetry, the removal of the glamor which the
dauntless deeds of the woodsmen in their picturesque environment have
hung like halos over the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company. To the
illumined mind a dim and vapory nimbus still lingers hauntingly over
these historic spots, but in the very fulness of fruition the
disintegration of the Company's career was begun. For forty years it
continued at the zenith of its glory, the woods were filled with the
_voyageurs_, ships came and went bearing supplies and pelts, over
150,000 Indians spent their laborious lives in gleaning the wealth of
the forests and streams, and over 3,000 employees took charge of the
commodities from the sale of which over 60 per cent profit was annually
distributed as dividends.

Vigilantly the governor kept watch and ward over its rights and
privileges and the pressure exercised by his fine machiavellian fingers
was felt by the American commissioners at every stage of the negotiation
of the Oregon Treaty, which involved the forts on the Columbia River as
well as the Island of Vancouver. The Canadian Pacific grant found secret
but obstinate opposition from the same source. Meanwhile knowledge of
the great wealth in the interior spread farther and farther, and more
frequent and more determined attempts were made to penetrate the rigid
barricade. More numerous and more extensive breaches were made in the
Company's defenses by rivals and free traders, but they were superficial
and trivial. In the bold and aggressive exterior there was not the
slightest sign to mark the real and vital danger which existed inside.
For one hundred and fifty years the Company had successfully beaten off
the only enemy capable of destroying its splendid organization. A change
occurred; a strong man appeared with a fixed idea, the opposition was
overcome, and the colonization long repelled was immediately
inaugurated. One is not greatly astonished to learn that the man who
innocently and benevolently produced the conditions that were to reduce
the Company to an allotropic form was a man who stood high in the
councils of the directory.

When the poor peasants were expelled from the Highland glens and crofts
of Kildonan in order that the proprietors might secure game preserves,
the philanthropic Earl of Selkirk, who owned nearly one-third of the
stock of the Company, conceived the plan that these people might be
transferred to the boundless plains of the fertile but undeveloped
regions around Lake Winnipeg. Through his connection with the Company,
he was able to purchase 110,000 square miles of land which surrounded
the junction of the Assiniboia and Red Rivers. In 1811 his first colony
of seventy people arrived in three vessels at Fort York, but so late in
the season that it was impossible to complete the journey. Wintering at
Fort York, they started in the spring on their long and toilsome trip by
river and portage, up rocky ascents, over perilous passes and across a
300-mile expanse of open lake, and at last arrived at their destination.
This settlement they first named Fort Douglas, in honor of Selkirk, but
after the massacre it was called Fort Garry, and later became the
present city of Winnipeg.

The Company used this event in later years to prove that it favored
colonization, but this was solely for argument, since it not only did
not aid and was in no way responsible for the colonization, but
consistently and steadfastly opposed the Selkirk settlement and
continually placed obstacles in the way of its success. The men at Fort
Garry were joined by other colonists during the next three years, until
they numbered two hundred and eighty. For fifteen years, however, it was
an open question whether the colony would survive or perish.

Surrounded by Indians, wild beasts, and other strange dangers, combating
extreme droughts and most unusual floods, intense heat and extreme cold,
plagues of grasshoppers and crop failures, they surmounted all only to
be nearly swept out of existence by the warfare of the Hudson's Bay
Company and the Northwesters, wherein the site of the colony was
persistently used as a battleground.

The export of the products of the colony, such as buffalo tallow, was
hindered and even prevented. The settler could not engage in the fur
trade without forfeiting his lands; enormous and prohibitive tariffs
were charged on freights to be exported through the Company's stores on
Hudson Bay. The irritation produced by these methods and the resentment
felt toward the Company steadily increased. At St. Paul, where the
settlers secured supplies and a trade outlet, their irritation was
commended and their resentment craftily inflamed. The efforts of the
Company were constantly exerted to hold the lid on the boiling Red River
colony and to prevent further invasion.

For a time submission was the rule, and when the French and English
half-breeds, headed by Isbister, forwarded a long memorial to the
Secretary for the Colonies setting forth their grievances, the
controversy waxed fierce and the troubles became acute. A French settler
bought goods, intending to start a trading expedition to Lake Manitoba.
The Company arrested, imprisoned him, and confiscated his goods,
according to its custom. Hundreds of half-breeds poured into the
settlement, and under Louis Riel, the father, the prisoner was rescued.
Five years later a petition signed by six hundred half-breeds reciting
grievances and requesting legislative instruction was presented to the
Assembly of Canada. Unrest, continual disorder, and growing strength of
the colony marked the next ten years. In 1857 the Toronto Board of Trade
petitioned the Assembly to open up the territories of the Hudson's Bay
Company to trade.

In 1857 also Chief Justice Draper appeared as representative of Canadian
interests before a committee of the House of Commons, and in consequence
Vancouver Island, which the Company held under a twenty-one years'
lease, was squeezed out of its grasp. The report of the proceedings is
most interesting and the fence between witness and counsel has not been
excelled in any later proceedings.

This was a period of great anxiety to the Company, and justly so, for
the end was most surely approaching. Next we learn in 1862 that Governor
Berens, old and obstinate, the last of the "smug and ancient gentlemen,"
was approached, and ultimately induced to sell outright to a Canadian
syndicate, with modern ideas, the rights of the Company in Canada for
$7,500,000. Great alarm and indignation were produced by this
astonishing act among the chief factors and chief traders who had been
regarded as having some partnership rights in the Great Company,
according to the plans of union in 1821. However, they were bought off,
pensioned, and placated. The new partners now began a clever warfare
against yielding up any of the Company's vested rights, and for ten
years they kept up a brave fight against their impending and inevitable
fate. The newspapers were utilized and social and financial pressure was
brought to bear on the Legislative Assembly, and on the House of
Commons. Money was poured forth in great abundance, and every device was
employed that the greatest and most ingenious legal talent could suggest
to avoid the surrender of its monopoly, but the tunes had changed and
the ten years' effort was all in vain.

The confederation movement had widened the horizon of Canadian public
men. In 1867, the year of confederation, Hon. William McDougall moved in
the Dominion Parliament a series of resolutions which showed the
advantages, both to Canada and to the Empire, of the Dominion being
extended to the Pacific. He showed that settlement, commerce, and the
development of the resources of a country are dependent upon a stable
government; that the welfare of the Red River settlers would be
enhanced; that provision was contained in the British North American Act
for the admission of Rupert's Land and the Northwest Territory to the
Dominion; that this wide country should be united to Canada; that in
case of union the rights of any corporation, as the Hudson's Bay,
association or individual, should be respected; that this should be
settled judicially or by agreement; that the Indian title should be
extinguished, and that an address should be made to Her Majesty to this
effect.

The resolutions were passed by a large majority of the House. The
Company, driven to the wall, made a determined stand for terms. The
Imperial Government insisted that the resolutions should prevail, and
also that the Company should demand only reasonable compensation. It was
finally agreed that the Company should relinquish all rights in Rupert's
Land and Northwest Territory; that Canada should pay to the Company
$1,500,000; that the Company should retain blocks of land around the
posts which amounted to about 50,000 acres (a most valuable concession,
since the posts were always most favorably placed); that the Company be
given outright one-twentieth of all the arable land of the relinquished
territory, namely, the eighth and twenty-sixth square miles of every
township; that the rights of half-breeds and Indians should be
respected, and that the Company should be allowed every privilege in
carrying on trade as a regular trading company. In 1870, just two
hundred years from the granting of the charter, the Imperial Decree was
passed, and the Hudson's Bay Company, whose word had been law over
3,000,000 square miles of territory, subsided into a simple trading
company in the Dominion of Canada.

The transfer, however, did not take place without disturbance, for the
restive half-breeds of the Red River country, fearing that their rights
would not be respected, and aided and abetted, as many believed, by
disappointed and rebellious factors in the Company's service, entered
upon an armed rebellion under Louis Riel, the son. And the old fur route
from Fort William, where the life of the Company had pulsed for years,
now felt keenly conscious of the changed conditions when Colonel
Wolseley and his men traversed the waters of Rainy River and Lake, Lake
of the Woods, and Lake Winnipeg, and landed at Fort Garry, the seat of
an insurrection which promptly subsided on the appearance of the troops.

Since the surrender of its charter, thirty-eight years have slipped
away, during which the Company has continued its fur trade, but the
forts have changed; the stockades have been taken down; the Indian now
is permitted to approach and even to enter the sacred precincts of the
factor's residence; the posts are gradually withdrawn as the country
settles up, and at the headquarters in Winnipeg, where its downfall
began, the Company, _miserabile dictu_, has a large mail-order house,
and from this point it conducts its immense land business which promises
to develop almost fabulous returns.

In 1890 the lands then surveyed, which were set aside for the Company,
amounted to 7,000,000 acres, which were valued at $20,000,000, and
every year sees accretions to the amount of territory as the survey of
the Dominion proceeds, and every year the land increases in value and
adds a potent increment to the already bursting vaults of the Company.
More fortunate than the East India Company, whose rapacity compelled the
government to deprive it of its prey, we find the Hudson's Bay Company
in secure, peaceful, and legal possession of an endless flow of gold.

Thus we have witnessed the felicitous birth of the "Great Company,"
surrounded by the pomp and circumstance of royalty; we have seen its
adventurous youth gradually merge into a robust and turbulent manhood
against which none could prevail. With the approach of age the reins of
power have been torn from those mighty hands, but in the midst of all
the luxury that enormous wealth can supply and undisturbed by the tumult
and the clamor, the lean and slippered pantaloon sees in dreamy
retrospect the warfare and the conquests of the centuries, and views
with filmy eye the slow procession of the years. Yet not in vain has the
Company lived and not without gratitude should it pass away. In spite of
many shortcomings and selfish ambitions, the Company must be recognized
as a powerful factor in the development of the New World.

As the search for gold in 1849 opened our great western lands to
settlement, as the search for Sir John Franklin resulted in an accurate
survey of 6,000 miles of Arctic coast, so the search for a Northwest
Passage has developed the fur trade, the pursuit of which has opened up
to civilization and prosperity the immense territories of the Northland.
But the Day of Destiny is close at hand; the fur and the forests in one
involving ruin are doomed to disappear; the age of wheat and the settler
looms large upon the horizon; railroads begin to penetrate the Dominion
in the wake of the vanished fur brigades; the play is done; the curtain
descends.

The forts of the Company still dot the vast solitudes where fish and
game abound, and veteran factors, grizzled in the service, extend a
generous hospitality to those who thread the devious trails of the
silent and brooding North, a hospitality so cordial that it would be
deplorable to conclude without a word of tribute.

Who can forget the delightful thrills of interest and anticipation when
first the fort bursts into view? How quickly the tired arms receive new
vigor! How eagerly the excited paddle dips the swirling waters! Who can
fail to recall the laggard and reluctant departure in the early dawn, as
the sun streams over the edge of the forest and bathes in crimson glory
the gently sinuous folds of the flag? Then quietly comes the factor down
to the landing with messages for the next post, and a packet of
letters for civilization. How carefully he repeats his suggestions
regarding the route, and how seriously admonishes concerning certain
rapids or portages. Only by a transient gleam of the eye does he betray
his own eagerness to become a bird of passage as he bids his guests a
heartfelt farewell.

[Illustration]

The canoe grates away from the shore, the voices subside, the Indian
steps silently into the stern, the steady sweep of the paddle begins--we
leave with sober melancholy, and ever and always we breathe a fervid
prayer that at least while we live it will be possible to launch the
canoe upon the impetuous streams that wash the domain where the "lords
of the wintry lakes and boundless forests" once held imperious sway, and
when current and paddle bear us swiftly away that our lingering backward
glance may rest upon the fort and behold at the top of the tall staff
the slowly heaving folds of the blood-red banner of the HUDSON'S BAY
COMPANY.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: A paper read before the Society, March 16, 1909.]





The Beaver Club

SOME SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE FUR TRADE

  "Men of the High North, fierce mountains love you;
  Proud rivers leap when you ride on their breast.
  See, the austere sky, pensive above you,
  Dons all her jewels to smile on your rest.
  Children of Freedom, scornful of frontiers,
  We who are weaklings honor your worth.
  Lords of the Wilderness, Princes of Pioneers,
  Let's have a rouse that will ring round the earth."

  --Service, "Men of the High North."




The Beaver Club[2]


In the _New York Times_ of May 28, 1894, there appeared the following
notice:

At the auction sale yesterday of the property of the late actress,
Rosina Yokes, at 9 W. 28th St., a snuffbox was sold for $41.00, and the
purchaser exclaimed, so that all in the room could hear, "I would have
given $1,000.00 for that." Nearly everyone present smiled when the
remark was made, thinking the purchaser was joking, but afterward he
produced a letter that showed he was deeply in earnest. It was dated May
26, at the Hoffman House, and was addressed to Mr. Brian C. Hughes by
his cousin, E. Hughes. It said, "There will be a sale tomorrow at
Kreiser's. The lost snuffbox is to be sold. I don't know how it got into
the possession of Rosina Yokes, but it is No. 581 in the catalogue and
was presented to your grandfather, James Hughes, by the Earl of
Dalhousie. Its intrinsic value is about $200.00, but as a family
heirloom it is worth five times that to you. It may go for a song."

The snuffbox was a small affair of solid silver with gold edges, and
upon the under side of its close-fitting lid was an inscription which
read: "The Earl of Dalhousie to James Hughes, Esq., in remembrance of
the Beaver Club, May 24, 1824."[3]

A friend whom Mr. Hughes met in the auction room expressed great
interest in the souvenir and asked for its history. "Shall I make it
short or long?" inquired Mr. Hughes. "Long, by all means," urged his
friend. "Then come with me to the hotel and I will tell you what it
signifies." Carefully guarding his treasure in the pocket of his coat,
with his hand tightly clasping it, Mr. Hughes led the way to his
apartments where the silver snuffbox was unwrapped and placed upon the
table, so that it reflected the warm glow of the afternoon sun. Seating
themselves comfortably in easy chairs the men lighted cigars and after a
short pause, during which Mr. Hughes seemed to be arranging his
material, he began:

"The story has to do with about fifty years of Canadian history, in the
making of which my grandfather and the Beaver Club took an active and
important part. For this reason I have always been intensely interested
in the Dominion.

[Illustration: _Redrawn from picture furnished by Miss Adele Clark_

A MEETING-PLACE OF THE CLUB]

"You may not know that Sieur Verandrye was the last of the great French
explorers--I say French, for though he was born at Three Rivers on the
St. Lawrence, the village at that time was under French rule. At the
age of twelve he became a cadet, and nine years later he was sent
abroad. After a varied and active experience in European wars he
returned to Canada and entered the fur trade. This venturesome
occupation only partially satisfied his ambition, for he longed
passionately to discover the western sea which the tales of the Indians
led him to believe was not far beyond the western shore of Lake
Superior. His sons--equally temperamental--warmly embraced their
father's aspirations. This was in 1731, and during the next ten years
they discovered and explored the country around Lake of the Woods, built
Fort la Reine on Lake Winnipeg, and pushed their expeditions along the
greater portion of the Saskatchewan and as far into the interior as the
sources of the Missouri.

"Baffled and disappointed, Verandrye died with his quest undetermined,
while his energetic sons were quickly destroyed by the parasites of an
unseeing and inimical government. The Verandryes, nevertheless, had
blazed the great trails over which adventurous fur traders were to carry
the scattered banners of an industrial empire. The explorer died in
1742, but before it was possible even partially to utilize the results
of his work, the commercial hopes of France were extinguished; for in
1759 the victorious Wolfe brought all New France under the British
flag.

"The commerce of Canada--which meant of course the fur trade--now became
British, just as ten years earlier (1748) the brilliant successes of
Clive had completely extinguished the French trading companies in India.
French trade and French traders in fur almost disappeared, since large
numbers of the most enterprising of these people betook themselves to
France as a mark of resentment against British control.

"Canada already harbored a goodly proportion of former subjects of Great
Britain, for upon the suppression of the Jacobite rebellion in 1745,
many Scotchmen of noble family had been driven out of their Highland
homes--some to France, and not a few to New France. The number of these
Gaelic residents was greatly augmented also after the conquest, when the
Highland regiments were disbanded and whole companies of the soldiers
chose to remain in the new world. Later there was added a steady influx
of royalist refugees--mostly Scotch--whom the American Revolution had
driven from the colonies. Nor was this all, for the Hudson's Bay Company
had early appreciated the desirable qualities of these people, and had
brought hundreds of them across the sea to serve in its numerous trading
depots.

"In these several ways there grew up a large Scottish community in
Canada where their racial peculiarities found an ample field for
exploitation. With characteristic shrewdness they quickly perceived the
vast possibilities of the fur trade, which had been forced out of the
hands of the French, and they undertook its revival. Alexander Henry, in
1760, was the first of the Scotchmen to follow in the path hewn out by
dauntless and undespairing Verandrye. Then five years later came Curry,
who with less ambition or more success found the results so satisfactory
from his single expedition that he returned no more. After this the
number rapidly increased. McTavish, James Finlay, the two Frobishers,
Pond and Pangman were among the most prominent. Each of these daring
traders--'peddler' the Hudson's Bay Company derisively called
them--pushed farther and farther into the wilderness, until the country
was interlaced with trails as far as Athabasca Lake on the north and to
the steep barriers of the Rocky Mountains on the west. Over these
trails, by travois and tumpline, moved a steady procession of costly
furs.

"In long files heavily laden canoes floated down the waterways of the
great Northwest and converged upon Montreal. The city rose to the
occasion. The trade expanded, but obstacles appeared. The Scotch
merchants spoke French like Parisians, yet their narrow clannishness did
not at first permit them to make use of the Canadian-French
_voyageur_--a mistake which exposed their expeditions to many
unnecessary risks and to perils that were not easily or quickly
overcome.

"The French have always had a wonderful facility in attaching to
themselves the natives of the country in which they reside, and this
ability had nowhere been displayed to greater advantage than in their
relations with the American Indians. The rigid mentality of the Scot did
not lend itself quite so readily to the necessities of the business, and
this, added to the dissatisfaction engendered by their own commercial
rivalry, soon embittered the Indians against the Montreal merchants and
their ruthless methods. More and more often the brigades were robbed of
their goods, either going or coming, although the guards had frequently
been doubled and trebled.

"Needless to say the old lion couching calmly on Hudson's Bay soon
realized that his hunting-grounds were invaded, his food supply
threatened, and his feudal rights of a century challenged. But before
entering upon an active campaign against the newcomers, the Hudson's Bay
Company first played upon the fears and affections, as well as the
darker passions, of the Redmen, to intensify their hatred of the Scotch
traders. Under this influence the already hostile Indians were aroused
to the fighting pitch, and they were gathering themselves for a general
uprising that would drive out all the free traders when an epidemic of
smallpox swept over the country with merciless fury. The entire
Northwest was affected. Indian villages were decimated, whole tribes
were extinguished, and the survivors--mentally benumbed and physically
exhausted--lost their spirit of aggression in their desperate efforts to
sustain life. By the same deadly blight the fur trade was so nearly
annihilated that in 1782 only twelve traders took brigades into the
upper country.

"While recovering from this depression, the Free Traders had a chance to
think over the conditions of the business as well as the obstacles that
confronted them, and in 1784 they wisely concluded that their greatest
good would be developed by combining their forces. The move was
judicious, not only because in this way they could best secure their
brigades against the hostility of the Indians, but also the decimation
of the tribes had reduced their profits to a point that forbade wasteful
competition. Moreover the Hudson's Bay Company--alive to the new
condition--had given up its policy of dignified indifference and could
and did deliver its merchandise to the tribes on the Saskatchewan by its
nearer northern route at least a month before the individual traders of
Montreal could drive their canoes through the frozen Straits of Mackinac
and the ice-bound waters of the Great Lakes.

"So it happened, when the trade revived, that my grandfather and
twenty-eight other traders, all Scotch but two, united their forces in
what was known as the Northwest Fur Company. It was agreed that the
entire business management of the new company should be vested in the
conjoined firms of McTavish and the Frobishers, while the other parties
acting in concert should establish permanent posts at favorable points
throughout the fur country, and remain in residence there. A small
number of traders who for different reasons refused to join the
Northwest Company formed a combination of their own, which after a brief
struggle of two seasons was absorbed by its stronger competitor.

"In the history of trading companies--it is probable that the Northwest
Fur Company has never been equaled in the thoroughness of its
discipline, the energy of its operations, the courage of its promoters,
and the scope of its trade. In fifteen years its business annually
amounted to 106,000 beaver skins and 65,000 other peltries, conducted by
an army of about 2,000 men, not including the Indians. The capital
required by the agents in Montreal, the number of men employed, the vast
quantities of goods sent out, and the enormous store of furs received in
exchange--all combined to make the business of this company the most
important in Canada, a condition which promoted if it did not produce an
almost universal neglect of agriculture, manufactures, and
transportation. Upon the huge profits of such an extensive business the
members of the Northwest Company soon acquired the 'wealth of the
Indiaman, which they expended with as much careless liberality as their
national prototypes, the Nabobs.' Some bought seigniories, built
mansions, or even purchased estates in the old country, to which they
retired to live a life of specious and preternatural sobriety. Others
used their wealth for nobler ends, and McGill University stands as a
lasting monument to the wise foresight and high civic pride of one of
the partners.

"Sometimes one or more of the partners would go to New York on a tour of
pleasure or curiosity. On these occasions, says Irving, 'there was
always a degree of magnificence of the purse about them and a peculiar
propensity to visit the jewelers for rings, chains, brooches, necklaces,
jeweled watches, and other costly trinkets, partly for themselves and
partly for their female acquaintances, and all their actions were marked
by a kind of gorgeous prodigality.'

"Having long periods of leisure and a superabundance of animal spirits,
the partners soon felt the necessity for a place in Montreal wherein
they could disport themselves with the same untrammeled license that
they enjoyed in the wilderness. Now, among the partners gratification
followed desire with hardly a time interval, so that in 1785 nineteen of
them who happened to be in Montreal assembled one day to form the
Beaver Club, an organization which was as interesting from its social
importance as it was notable for the immense power it wielded, both
commercially and politically.

"The object of the Club as stated in the by-laws was to bring together
at stated periods during the winter season a set of men highly
respectable in society, who had spent their best days in a savage
country, and had encountered the hazards and hardships incident to the
pursuit of the fur trade in Canada. The one indispensable requirement
for membership was that the candidate should have passed at least one
winter in the Canadian wilderness. At first the incorporators maintained
a rigid exclusiveness, but later their ranks were opened, and the limit
of membership placed at fifty-five with ten honorary places. Why this
number was chosen is not known, but the rule was strictly adhered to
thereafter, and admission was secured only by unanimous vote.

"Each year the social gatherings were inaugurated by a dinner which all
the members residing in Montreal were obliged to attend. At the same
time they were required to notify the secretary if they should find
themselves so situated as to prevent their attendance during the season,
otherwise they were 'considered of the party and subject to the rules of
the Club.' The Club assumed powers which in the present day would be
strongly resisted, as, for instance, the provision that 'no member shall
have a party at his home on Club days nor accept invitations elsewhere,
but if in town must attend unless prevented by illness.' Fortnightly
meetings were held as a routine throughout the winter from December to
April, and in addition there was a summer club for the captains of the
fur vessels who in some instances were honorary members.

"At the regular gatherings an opportunity was offered of introducing
into society such traders as might from time to time return from the
Indian country. They were first invited as guests, and if eligible from
standing and character they might by ballot become members of the Club.

"Each formal session was opened by passing the pipe of peace (calumet)
according to the Indian custom, after which an officer appointed for the
purpose made a suitable harangue. Then followed in their proper order
the regularly established list of Club toasts, five in number, which
were obligatory, but after these had gone round, the members and guests
were at liberty to follow their inclinations.

"In imagination we can see these magnates sporting on their manly
breasts the gold medal of the Club whereon the Company's motto,
"Fortitude in Distress," was elaborately engraved--a badge of honor
which by the rules they were obliged to wear on these occasions. Richly
adorned with ruffles and a profusion of gold lace, with knee breeches
above their gold-clasped garters and silver-buckled shoes, the partners
sat in state at their great mahogany table, while the huge fireplace
snapped and roared with its load of giant logs and threw wave upon wave
of heat toward the banqueters whose servants plied them with luxuries
from the east and the west in regular relays. There was game from the
forests and plains, fish from the Great Lakes, and costly dainties from
across the sea, while the offerings to Bacchus were neither poor in
quality nor limited in amount.

"Their conversation doubtless turned on the prospects of the season and
the price of 'castors'; on the hardships of forest and lake,
interspersed not infrequently with spicy anecdotes about their hardy
factors and _voyageurs_, with now and then a sly and illuminating wink
that recalled some beautiful Pocahontas met in their dreams or travels;
for we have ample evidence that there was no Joseph among these puissant
lords of the forests. Some made the hours slip rapidly away with Scotch
story and Jacobite song, intermingled with those imperishable favorites
'_La clair fontaine_' and '_En roulant ma boule_.' Others had been
associated as clerks at the remote trading-posts, and the pleasures,
dangers, adventures, and mishaps which they had shared together in
their wild-wood life they now recounted, and renewed the links of
friendship and comraderie in convivial fraternity.

"From this time on, my grandfather used to say, the assembly took on
that character of extravagance and hilarious mirth which gave
considerable celebrity to the Club.[4] The wine-heated traders would sit
down upon the floor of the banquet hall, one with a poker, another with
shovel or tongs, and arranging themselves in regular order as in the
great North-canoes, they paddled vigorously onward, shouting at full
voice the inspiring boating songs, or mounting astride wine kegs they
would '_saute_' or shoot the rapids from the table to the floor. When
this stage was reached, all ceremony was relaxed, and clerks and
_voyageurs_, servants and attendants, gathered from all parts of the
building to watch the wild carousal which continued until dawn appeared
and threw its disillusioning rays upon the paling candles and the
red-faced revelers.

"Yet it was not alone at Montreal that these barons of the fur trade
held their boisterous feasts. Either because he was younger when he
first took part in them, or because they furnished him with his first
relaxation on his return from a winter of hardship at his distant and
desolate post, my grandfather always spoke with the most enthusiasm of
the festivities at Grand Portage and later at Fort William--to which
place the post was moved after the American War. These were in reality
only adjourned meetings of the Club, but far more suitably environed by
the satyr-haunted forest.

"To this rendezvous two or more of the partners from Montreal proceeded
annually to meet in general council the heads of the various
trading-posts of the interior who were known as the 'wintering
partners.' The purpose of the gathering was to review the affairs of the
Company during the preceding year, reward the meritorious, punish the
inefficient and the guilty, and put into effect those plans for the
future which had been agreed upon at the Club. On these occasions might
be seen the change from the unceremonious times of the old French
traders in their forest-worn vestments to those of the present, where
the aristocratic character of the old Briton or of the feudal Highlander
shone forth magnificently. Every partner who had charge of an interior
post had a score of retainers at his command, and was almost as
important in the eyes of his dependents as in his own, and to him the
visit to the grand conference at Fort William (or Grand Portage) was the
climax of the year's work, and he repaired thither as to a meeting of
Parliament.

"The partners from Montreal however were the lords of the ascendant, and
coming from the midst of a luxurious and ostentatious life they quite
eclipsed their compeers from the woods, whose forms and faces had been
battered and scarred by hard living and hard service. 'Indeed, the
partners from below considered the whole dignity of the Company as
represented in their own persons, and conducted themselves in suitable
style. They traversed the rivers in great state, like sovereigns making
a progress. They were wrapped in rich furs, their huge canoes freighted
with every convenience and luxury and manned by Canadian _voyageurs_ as
loyal and as obedient as their own ancestral clansmen. They carried with
them cooks and bakers, together with delicacies of every kind, and an
abundance of choice wine for the banquets. Happy were they if in
addition they could meet with some distinguished stranger, above all
some titled member of the British aristocracy, to accompany them on this
stately occasion and grace their high solemnities.'

"From the picturesque departure from La Chine to the ceremonious arrival
at Fort William, the journey of the partners was a pageant of pride and
power. La Chine is at the head of the rapids, nine miles above Montreal,
and here in the spring of the year were assembled a brigade of ninety
or a hundred canoes, each manned by eight men and a steersman. There was
one pilot for each group of ten canoes, and thirty or forty guides
accompanied the brigade to prevent waste of time on false leads. The
scene is dramatic enough to stir the blood even to this day.
'_Voyageurs_ and hunters are dressed in buckskin with the gayest of silk
bands around hair and neck, while pompous partners parade back and forth
in ruffles and gold braid, with brass-handled pistols and daggers at
belt. Into each canoe goes its cargo, two-thirds merchandise and
one-third provisions, with oilcloth, tarpaulin, towlines, and kettles.
As fast as they are loaded the canoes are pushed off and circle about on
the river, awaiting the signal of the head steersman. He, with full
knowledge of his importance, stands with his steel-shod pole high
overhead like the baton of a drum major. It drops; six hundred paddles
dip the water as with one arm, and instantly there shoot out the long
swift canoes of the partners, racing ahead to reach the rendezvous
before the cargoes arrive. Freight packers ashore raise a shout that
makes the river resound. The _voyageurs_ strike up their song to which
the paddles keep tune. The deep-throated chorus dies away in an
echo--the voyage is begun.'

"Up the Ottawa River, through Lake Nipissing with its memories of
Champlain, down the French River, across Georgian Bay and Lake Huron,
around the fierce rapids of the Sault Ste. Marie and along the north
shore of Lake Superior they drove their frail canoes through sunshine
and storm, for the Nor'-Westers were very wolves for speed. The
_voyageurs_ were drenched almost constantly, yet they made no murmur,
save on occasion a new recruit raised a feeble voice: 'c'est la misre,
c'est la misre mon Bourgeois,' a cry that was promptly smothered by the
scorn and derision of his fellows, who called him a "pork eater" and
other names equally effeminate and insulting.

"The brigades arrived at Fort William preceded by the swift-traveling
partners, who were welcomed by loud cheers and salvos of artillery, a
gratifying sound to expectant ears and proud hearts of the flinty faced
Scotchmen. To each _voyageur_ came a more satisfying reward in the shape
of a _rgale_, which meant a gallon of rum. Meanwhile the partners from
the interior were arriving at frequent intervals, their canoes laden to
the waterline with the packs of furs, worth $200.00 per pack. These men
also had a _rgale_ and the entire population of partners, traders,
clerks, _voyageurs_, and Indians swarmed in from east, west, south, and
north to enter upon their annual carousal.

"Fort William, the scene of this important convocation, was a
considerable village on the western shore of Lake Superior, across the
river from the present city of Port Arthur. Here in an immense wooden
building was the great council hall, which was appropriately decorated
with Indian arms, accouterments, and other trophies of the fur trade.
'The councils were held in great state, for every member felt to the
utmost his responsibility, and every retainer and dependent looked up to
the assembly with an awe-filled eye, as upon a House of Lords--which in
truth it was. There was a vast deal of solemn deliberation and hard
Scottish reasoning, with an occasional swell of pompous declamation.'

"The grave and formal councils were held in alternation with huge feasts
and revels. The council hall was converted into the banquet chamber, and
the tables groaned under the weight of game of all kinds, and especially
such hunters' delicacies as moose noses, buffalo tongues, and beaver
tails, garnished and surrounded by various dainties from Montreal
prepared and served by experienced cooks. The supply of wine was
unstinted, for it was a hard-drinking period, a time of royal toasts,
Bacchanalian songs, and brimming bumpers.

"The chiefs wassailed in the hall and made the rafters shake with bursts
of loyalty and old Scottish songs, chanted in voices cracked and
sharpened by the northern blasts, while their merriment was echoed and
prolonged by a mongrel legion of retainers, _voyageurs_, half-breeds,
Indian hunters, and vagabond hangers-on. These feasted sumptuously
outside upon the crumbs from the rich man's table, accompanied by a full
chorus of old French ditties mingled with Indian yelps and howls.

"Thus the environment for the savage pleasures of these fierce old
forest vikings was far more suitable than the silent streets of Montreal
patrolled by the alert step of the watch, who looked with awe, not
unmixed with envy, upon the brilliant windows and vibrating walls of the
Beaver Club.

"At Montreal the Club represented at once the acme of social attainment
and the pinnacle of commercial success in Lower Canada, and its members
dispensed their hospitality with baronial prodigality. Every
distinguished stranger visiting the city was hailed and feasted at their
sumptuous board. From the foundation of the Club until 1809, when he
organized the rival corporation known as the American Fur Company, John
Jacob Astor was a welcome guest, and from the magnates of the Club he
secured many of the traders and canoemen whom he sent to the sources of
the Missouri and down the Columbia on that memorable expedition to the
Pacific. The _voyageurs_ were the most experienced canoemen and
wilderness travelers in the world, and the Club took a high and
pardonable pride in the skill of its hardy henchmen.

"Gabriel Franchre describes how a party of these _voyageurs_ of which
he was a member obtained considerable notoriety. They were engaged to
join the Astor expedition, and with buoyant temperament and professional
pride the woodsmen determined to astonish the people of the states with
the sight of a Canadian boat and a Canadian crew. They accordingly
fitted up a large bark canoe, such as was used in the fur trade, and
amid the shouts of their fellows and the complacent approval of the Club
they swung merrily into the St. Lawrence. Thence they paddled up the
Richelieu River to Lake Champlain--the old route of the Iroquois war
parties--and into Lake George. Portaging their canoe across to the
Hudson, they plied their way cheerily southward. The banks re-echoed
with their old French boating songs, and they passed the villages with
whoop and halloo so as to make the honest Dutch farmers mistake them for
a band of savages. In the quiet of a summer afternoon they swept in full
song with regular flourish of paddle around New York to the wonder and
admiration of the inhabitants.[5] But not all. There was at least one
citizen to whom this exhibition, although greatly enjoyed, was by no
means a novelty; for Washington Irving had sat at the great table of the
Club on many an occasion. As a sensitive and impressionable youth he had
gazed with wondering and inexperienced eye upon the mighty
Nor'-Westers--these princes paramount at Montreal. He witnessed their
lordly wassailing and listened with astonished ear to their tales of
hardship and adventure. Here he received the impetus and developed the
interest which subsequently culminated in those fascinating tales of the
wilderness, _Astoria, A Tour of the Prairies_, and _Captain Bonneville_.
Indeed so greatly was he interested that, upon invitation, he was sorely
tempted to accompany one of the partners upon his romantic annual trip
to Fort William. The invitation was declined, but his self-denial was
ever after a source of bitter regret.

"In 1804 Thomas Moore was the guest of the Club, and during an excursion
up the Ottawa River he heard the songs of the _voyageurs_ for the first
time. His mind was so fired by the wild scenery and the haunting refrain
of the French _chansons_ which he heard from the bark canoes at sunset,
that he was inspired to write the beautiful 'Canadian Boat Song,' which
in music and in words has become almost the national air of Canada.

  Faintly as tolls the evening chime
  Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time.
  Soon as the woods on the shore look dim
  We'll sing at St. Ann's our parting hymn.
  Row, brothers, row--the stream runs fast,
  The rapids are near and the daylight is past.

  Ottawa's tide! this trembling moon
  Shall see us float over thy surges soon.
  Saint of this green isle hear our prayers.
  O! grant us cool heavens and favoring airs.
  Blow, breezes, blow! the stream runs fast,
  The rapids are near and the daylight is past.

"Alexander Mackenzie, the first of the great Scotch explorers, was a
member of the Club, and made it his headquarters on his return from the
Arctic region and the discovery of the great river that bears his name.
Again he returned to the Club after his successful journey across the
steep passes of the Rocky Mountains to the waters of the western
sea--the Northwest Passage by land. In this singular way was Verandrye's
dream to be justified and fulfilled.

"Hither in due time came the celebrated astronomer, geographer, and
explorer, David Thompson--and also Simon Frazer--to rest from their
journeys to the Pacific, while Peter Grant, the historiographer, with
Malhiot, the French trader from Lac du Flambeau in Northern Wisconsin,
found convivial fellowship at the Club. Later on Sir John Franklin, then
a lieutenant, sat with many others in the great hall, brimful of life,
buoyant with hope and heedless of perils by forest or sea, and here he
pledged the health of the Club while the piercing northern blasts were
howling over the brow of the neighboring Mount Royal, with some faint
premonition perhaps of that still wilder blast over the icy slopes of
the grim arctic shores where he was destined to yield up his noble
spirit at the call of duty.

"In Montreal and Quebec the partners frequented the best society and
were received with a pleasure, due not alone to their rank and wealth,
but to their engaging manners and interesting conversation. But it was
not entirely in this social aspect that the members of the Club won
distinction--they wielded a broader and deeper influence. If in Canada
they showed amiable and engaging qualities, among the _voyageurs_ and
Indians they were men of business--'Crafty Wolves of the North'--hard
and sinewy in muscle and conscience. They defended what they were
pleased to call their _rights_ with brutish ferocity. They were in
business to secure furs as honestly as convenient, but at any rate to
secure furs. The fur trade of Lower Canada had its official headquarters
at the establishment of the combined firms of McTavish and the
Frobishers, but the real commercial center of the colony was at the
Beaver Club. Nor was this all. The official residence of the
Governor-General of Canada was at Quebec, but in his legislative
council sat the sturdy Nor'-Wester, McGillivray, and it was frequently
demonstrated that this strong spirit of the trading company kept a
watchful eye and a stern hand on the affairs of state. Did the question
of parochial schools arise--the Beaver Club was interested. Was it the
conduct of the war with America, the method and form of defense, or the
raising of funds--the prestige and experience of the Beaver Club was the
decisive influence. In brief, no rule was laid down, no order went
forth, either in the political or commercial world of Canada, that had
not been considered and passed upon from the standpoint of the Club.

"It was a position of extreme advantage, and it raised the Northwest
Company to the zenith of its power. Its rivals had all been ruined or
absorbed, save only the Honorable Hudson's Bay Company which, deeply
intrenched in its northern fastness, still held defiantly to its
territorial rights and waged aggressive war. For twenty-five years these
great competitors had fought foot to foot and point to point without
advantage to either. Where one planted a fort the other followed within
the year. They not only strove to reach the Indians first, but when one
succeeded the other would give desperate battle for the furs already
secured. Neither hesitated to rob the brigades of the rival company,
nor to murder the clerk in charge when a preponderance of strength gave
assurance of victory.

"Great as financiers, marvelous as explorers, facile as traders, brave
of spirit, and with the Company's motto, 'Fortitude in Distress,' ever
before them, the Beaver Club now settled down to the last decade of the
battle. The members gathered as usual, and even displayed an unwonted
boisterousness in their regular carousals, but in spite of all a
different spirit was manifest, a somber tinge colored the happenings at
the Club, and Destiny with flying scourge drove it swiftly on to tragedy
and dissolution. The contest, which had been a commercial rivalry
hitherto, bloody and desperate but more or less circumspect, now became
an open and relentless warfare in which Indian lives were prodigally
sacrificed and the white man strove with head, hand, and weapon against
his fellow. The faces of the 'Nor'-Westers' were grim and set with
deadly resolution--their eyes were steely and mostly the hand that held
the tasseled cane clenched it about the middle.

"As the thoughtful citizen of the present sees with dismay the ruin of
the seal herds or bemoans the greedy and reckless waste of our forests,
so the far-sighted colonist of those times might well lament the
barbarous and insensate conduct of the fur trade. Whisky was poured out
in a flood, the naked warriors of forest and plain were totally
demoralized, while the struggle for peltries was carried on with a fury
and a deadliness that caused it to appear less like a licensed commerce
than a wholesale brigandage. If the partners in Montreal were heedful of
public opinion, their associates in the wilderness were by no means so
scrupulous. Their greed felt no limitations; justly sure of applause if
they succeeded, they feared rebuke only in case they failed. Such were
the conditions between the rival companies and such was the condition of
the fur trade when a new element entered the contest.

"In 1805, Lord Selkirk became interested in the country around Red River
and Lake Winnipeg, and on his trip to Prince Edward Island with a body
of colonists he came to Montreal where he was entertained by the Club.
Here he met my grandfather whose post at Fort des Prairies, near Lake
Manitoba, enabled him to give his Lordship information that he much
desired. Again in 1809 he returned with the same intense interest in the
upper country. My grandfather was in Montreal that winter, and naturally
spent most of his time at the Club. Lord Selkirk met him again and again
and questioned him so keenly and to such length that my grandfather's
suspicions were aroused. Lord Selkirk, he reflected, could have no
object in undertaking the fur trade, for he was already immensely
wealthy, and, if he wished, could easily buy a partnership in the
Company, and since neither my grandfather nor his fellows could form any
conception of disinterestedness in one of the British nobility, the
motive remained undiscovered. Lord Selkirk returned to Great Britain to
develop his scheme, which was nothing less than the colonization of the
Red River valley. He already had a large interest in the Hudson's Bay
Company, and as the shares had depreciated from 250 to 50 per share,
owing to the warfare with the Northwest Company, he had no difficulty in
so increasing his holdings that with his friends he controlled a
majority of the stock. Thereupon he forced the Company to cede to him a
tract of 110,000 square miles of land near the junction of the
Assiniboine and Red Rivers, and by 1811 he was able to start his first
colony of seventy people, all from Ireland and the Highlands of
Scotland. The poor agitated emigrants sailed in three ships for Hudson
Bay. At Fort York they wintered and then started in the spring for the
colony, which was destined to become the present city of Winnipeg.

"The Beaver Club was bitterly opposed to this movement from its
inception, first, because it was inaugurated through the hostile
Hudson's Bay Company and might therefore greatly further those interests
in the Red River country; secondly, because it flatly contravened their
claim to proprietorship of the Northwest, and finally, because
settlement and agriculture were incompatible with a continuance of the
fur trade. 'When the settler comes the mink and the beaver disappear.
Where the ploughshare turns its furrow the antelope flies warily to
distant coverts.'

"So the Beaver Club watched with lowering brows and deep-throated curses
the advance of the emigrants, but beyond refusing on various pretexts to
sell food to the colonists, they refrained from interference. They
doubtless hoped the frightful hardships which the settlers experienced
would drive them to retreat or destruction. A second detachment of
emigrants arrived in 1813, and a third in the following year. The Beaver
Club was seething with suppressed indignation, and now awaited only a
fitting occasion to declare war. Henceforth the drama moves steadily and
inevitably to the catastrophe.

"For two years the agents of the Club had been warning Lord Selkirk by
post that the attitude of the Indians was becoming more and more hostile
toward the colonists, and doubt was expressed whether they--the
Northwest Company--could hold them much longer in check. Although
Selkirk fully understood the sinister meaning of this hint and
appreciated clearly the real source of the danger to his colony, yet his
only reply was to ship arms and munitions of war to the settlement.

"It now happened that the scarcity of provisions and the constantly
increasing numbers of the colonists brought the menace of famine, so the
governor of the colony prohibited the export of any provisions until the
settlers had been given opportunity to purchase their winter's supply.
The resident factor of the Northwest Company received instructions from
Montreal to disregard this order and to ship out the supplies as fast as
possible. The governor, realizing that his colony would probably perish,
sent a body of men to take possession of the provisions that remained in
the post of the Northwest Company. Although this action was far less
violent and highhanded and far more justifiable under the circumstances
than hundreds which had been executed by and in behalf of the Company,
yet it was promptly utilized as a pretext for the long-desired war.
Instructions were forwarded to the annual convocation at Fort William to
begin the contest at once and _Colonia delenda est_ became the watchword
of the Club.

"Duncan Cameron, a Scotchman and a royalist refugee from the revolting
American colonies, was given charge of the campaign. He was allowed and
expected to employ all the influence and unlimited resources of the
powerful Company against those poor fellow-countrymen who were trying to
eke out in the new world a livelihood which, miserable as it was,
obdurate Nature and oppressive landlords refused them in the old. It is
probable that none of the partners was more willing to undertake this
mission nor better endowed to execute it.

"In July, 1814, Cameron departed for his post, which was located about a
mile from the new settlement. By means of the common nationality and his
insinuating and persuasive manner, Cameron soon convinced about
three-fourths of the colonists that he was devoted heart and soul to
their interests. He also utilized the timely appearance of Ober's comet
to terrorize the more ignorant and superstitious. Their governor had
been arrested and sent to Montreal to stand trial for the seizure of the
provisions, and Cameron took advantage of his absence to induce the
settlers to leave Red River and locate under the Company's protection at
some point along the St. Lawrence that he should select. He removed all
the arms, including the cannon, from the settlement to his own good
fort, and then the settlers who had been unwilling to follow him were
intimidated by his men until in despair they consented to abandon their
homes. These were put into boats and sent back down the river toward
Hudson Bay, while Cameron with the larger body started for Fort William
to attend the annual convocation. He left some men to burn the
settlement, and in June, 1815, eleven months from his arrival, smoking
ruins marked the site of the promising colony. Cameron was warmly
felicitated and handsomely rewarded at Fort William for his achievement,
and the news was sent in all haste to Montreal.

"The Club was at the height of its jubilation over the success of this
unscrupulous performance when an express canoe came swiftly down the St.
Lawrence bearing the most vexatious tidings. The band of colonists
traveling to Hudson Bay had found a leader in one Colin Robertson, and
having been joined by a new draft from over sea had returned to the
settlement, resumed the lands, retaken by force their arms and
agricultural implements from the post of the Northwest Company, and were
harvesting the crops which Cameron's men had neglected to destroy.

"Meanwhile Robertson, though deprived of the water route by the
vigilance of the Nor'-Westers, had found means to send overland to Lord
Selkirk a full description of the disaster that had overtaken his
colony, as well as the manner and agency by which it was accomplished.
This message was carried through bands of hostile Indians and through
the well-guarded lines of the Northwest Company by a trapper named La
Jimmonire, whose wonderful winter trip of more than one thousand miles
is in itself an interesting story.

"Lord Selkirk now applied to the Governor-General of Canada for
protection for his colony, and asked for a military guard. When the
matter came up in the Council it was strongly opposed by McGillivray,
who was the political and diplomatic head of the war, just as Sir
Alexander Mackenzie was the executive officer in the field. McGillivray
being the Governor's influential adviser and the dominant head of the
Northwest Company, he easily posed as a high authority on the fur
country, and, attributing the destruction of the colony to an Indian
attack, he urged that it was a sporadic affair and not at all likely to
occur again. He dwelt especially on the difficulty and danger of
transporting troops so far from their base of supplies and into a
country already on the verge of famine. He stated that it would be a
great and entirely unnecessary expense to Canada, and finished by
declaring that the presence of troops in that country would so inflame
the already exasperated savages that a general uprising would ensue and
all the whites be massacred. His arguments were effective, and the
troops were not sent. Lord Selkirk, who had spent the winter in
Montreal, was defeated but not discouraged.

"Help came in a very opportune and unexpected manner. At the conclusion
of the war in 1812 three British regiments had been left in Canada,
namely, the Meuron, the Wattville, and Glengarry, the two first being
from Switzerland. They were now about to disband, and as many of the
soldiers did not wish to return to Europe, Lord Selkirk induced them to
accept homesteads in the Red River colony. Having been armed and
equipped, they started in June for Red River, led by Lord Selkirk in
person. They traveled as rapidly as possible, hoping to anticipate a
second blow which rumor persistently declared was about to fall upon the
colony. Hurrying across Lake Huron they ascended St. Mary's River, only
to be met at Sault Ste. Marie by two canoes bearing tidings of the
massacre of Seven Oaks and the total destruction of the colony for a
second time. Selkirk pushed on and found at Fort William the unhappy
confirmation of the story. He learned that the settlement had been put
in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company with Governor Semple in command,
as it was understood that a second attack was impending. On June 19,
1816, troops of half-breeds (_bois bruls_) which the Northwest Company
had collected for the purpose appeared in sight and advanced upon the
settlement. They were disguised as Indians and Governor Semple, with
about twenty-five men, left Fort Douglas and went forward to discover
their intentions. A little over half a mile from the fort, at a place
called Seven Oaks, the parties met. After a few words between the
leaders, the irresponsible half-breeds opened fire. With deadly aim and
savage zeal they continued to shoot until Governor Semple and twenty of
his men were killed. There had been no resistance, and when Fort Douglas
was threatened it too was given up. All the colonists were dispersed,
their buildings burned, and the Nor'-Westers remained in complete
control.

"The acts of Lord Selkirk in securing justice for this outrage, his
arrival at the colony with his men, the collection of the fugitives and
the rejuvenation of the settlement under his inspiring leadership are no
part of this story. Suffice it to say that the colony thenceforward
suffered only from natural obstacles which were quietly met and
courageously overcome, and the little settlement steadily grew and
prospered until it became the principal city of Central Canada.

"The news of the brutal massacre at Seven Oaks was received with mixed
feelings at the Beaver Club. Some blusteringly referred to it as the
glorious news from the North, but the more thoughtful were greatly
agitated. They foresaw the possible consequences with dread and
apprehension. The immediate effect of the tragedy was the startled
recoil of the principals. Later it was discovered that both the Club and
the Northwest Company had received mortal wounds. The Nor'-Westers
promptly disclaimed responsibility for the attack, and as a mark of good
faith to forestall a recurrence, they entered upon a truce with their
great rival. This continued until 1821, when a permanent union was
effected. The Hudson's Bay Company remained supreme, and into its
vitiated blood was poured the exuberant energy and somewhat overbold
hardihood of the bellicose Nor'-Westers.

[Illustration: FORT GARRY

It was from this fort that Governor Semple went out to his death at the
Massacre of Seven Oaks]

"The Club meanwhile lost its unity of spirit. It became a place of
dissension, where the members wrangled over the Seven Oaks affair, just
as the legal questions during the same period were tediously contested
in the courts. The vigor and strength of the organization had departed,
and bitter enmities developed. To be sure the Club lingered along in a
weak, futile, and declining way for two or three years after the merging
of the companies, but the divergence of trade from Montreal to the ports
of Hudson Bay was fatal to its existence, and the Club finally came to
its official end in 1824.

"Upon its dissolution the Earl of Dalhousie, then governor of Canada,
presented to my grandfather this silver snuffbox which he used
constantly up to the time of his death. It then disappeared. For many
years old cups of rude design and pieces of solid plate bearing the mark
of the Club appeared at intervals in the auction rooms as mute witnesses
of the roistering days of old, but no trace of the snuffbox has ever
been found until today. You can see, therefore, why I value it so
highly. It is my only souvenir of my grandfather and of the mighty
Company in whose acts and counsels he took so notable a part.

"It is doubtless true the Company debased and corrupted the Indians, but
it was the means, though an obstinate and unwilling means, whereby the
interior of the immense Northwest was opened up and explored from the
inland seas to the Arctic Ocean and west to the Pacific. Impelled by a
greed for furs as rapacious as the Spanish lust for gold, the magnates
of the fur trade not only established their posts where cities now
stand, but they traced innumerable highways and developed the
possibility of traveling with ease and safety over prairie, river, and
lake, and through unmeasured tracts of tangled wilderness. It was a
period of great enterprise, of thrilling adventure, and almost
inevitably of flagrant crimes.

"Of the old Northwest Company only the spirit remains smouldering in the
heart of its former rival. The fur-bearing animals are nearly extinct.
It is the unwelcome end so clearly foreseen by the traders. The rolling
prairies and forested wilds over which the trade was conducted have been
converted into extensive farmsteads which support a spreading
civilization. The feudal grandeur of Fort William is a thing of the
past; the Beaver Club which for forty years dominated the social,
commercial, and political life of Canada has closed its doors; its
council chamber is silent and desolate; the banquet hall no longer
echoes to the old-world ditty, for the stalwart _masters of the
wilderness_ have passed away."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: A paper read before the Society, March 4, 1913.]

[Footnote 3: In a personal note to the writer Mr. Robert McCord of
Montreal inclines to doubt the authenticity of the snuffbox.]

[Footnote 4: The session began about 4 P.M., but the married men were
permitted to retire at 9 P.M. The rest remained till 4 A.M., and on the
occasion of Colonel Landman's visit, 120 bottles of wine were consumed
(_Colonel Landman's Recollections_, etc).]

[Footnote 5: Mr. Astor was so gratified by the exhibition that he gave
each of the _voyageurs_ an eagle with which to drink his health (Ross's
_Oregon Settlers_).]




A Dream of Empire

THE ADVENTURES OF TONTY IN OLD LOUISIANA

  "We were dreamers, dreaming greatly, in the man-stifled town;
  We yearned beyond the sky-line where the strange roads go down.
  Came the whisper, came the vision, came the power with the need,
  Till the soul that is not man's soul was lent us to lead.

         *       *       *       *       *

  Follow after--follow after! we have watered the root,
  And the bud has come to blossom that ripens for fruit!
  Follow after--we are waiting, by the trails that we lost,
  For the sounds of many footsteps, for the tread of a host.
  Follow after--follow after--for the harvest is sown;
  By the bones about the wayside ye shall come to your own."

  --Kipling, "The Song of the Dead."




A Dream of Empire[6]

The Adventures of Tonty in Old Louisiana


The memory of the French dominion in America arouses but feeble response
in the modern mind, and yet, when we invoke its "gallant shades, they
rise upon us from innumerable graves beside the water highways of the
past. Innumerable camp-fires lift their spectral flames, and against the
sombre background of the forest" we see in the flickering light those
stern-faced men whose courage won a continent.

Canada at that time was a colony in which feudalism and paternalism were
the paramount principles of government, and under the rule of Louis XIV,
priest and noble, warrior and civilian, knight and squire wove intricate
figures of romance in the great tapestry of the New World. Whether
impelled by love of adventure, the lure of ambition, the needs of
commerce, or religious fervor, they gave free rein to their enthusiasm
and traversed the wilderness in every direction, while their fleets of
canoes floated on the broad bosoms of the Great Lakes or swept along the
rivers with paddle and song.

No danger daunted nor obstacle deterred the ardent nobility of New
France, as in their frayed and faded uniforms they pushed boldly into
the interior, making treaties, building forts, surveying, measuring, and
calculating with militant intelligence and prophetic eyes. Nor did
commerce hesitate to follow or indeed to accompany the footsteps of the
pathfinders. No tribe was so remote as to escape the vigilance of the
trader with his crew of rollicking and irresponsible _voyageurs_, clad
in their gaudy caps and coats of fringed buckskin.

But while swarthy Frenchmen with sword at heel ranged from the St.
Lawrence to the Great Lakes and from the Ohio to the Mississippi, the
English colonists with rifle and axe crept relentlessly up the river
valleys from the bays and gulfs of the Atlantic to the distant
Alleghanies. Spreading by contiguity and occupying the region overrun is
deadly in its certainty, but extremely slow. Long before the English
front had reached the foothills the peril was recognized. The alert
French leaders foresaw that the mountain barrier would be only
temporary, that soon other buckskin wanderers would drift insistently
westward, until finally, in ceaseless caravans, the colonists would
sweep through Cumberland Gap and overwhelm the great valley.

Then it was that Frontenac, La Salle, Tonty, and later Iberville planned
to restrict the English influence and stop the forward movement by
exploring the Mississippi and by planting armed trading-posts along the
unknown rivers of the interior. Dominion over the native tribes and the
control of the fur trade went hand in hand, and both were necessary
adjuncts to success in a game of state-craft that was both personal and
political. Hampered by governmental restraints and only occasionally
supported by the languid hand of an apathetic ministry, Frontenac and La
Salle inaugurated the long campaign.

La Salle had already explored the Ohio and Joliet and Marquette had
discovered the Mississippi, when in 1678 La Salle returned from France
with a royal commission to examine the Great River, open it up to French
Commerce, and secure it to France by actual possession. With him, from
the Old World, came Henry de Tonty--the man with the iron hand.

To readers of Parkman, Mason, and Legler, Tonty needs no introduction.
He was born in 1650, the son of an Italian refugee, and in due time
entered the French army, which in those days furnished the most
desirable outlet for active and ambitious spirits. He saw much service,
and in the battle of Lebisso, in Sicily, lost a hand which was replaced
by an iron hook. After various alternations of fortune he was referred
to La Salle and became his most loyal friend, his most unselfish and
efficient aid.

Landing at Quebec, La Salle and Tonty paid their respects to the
Governor and departed for Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, which was to be
the base for their subsequent movements. Their first care was to build a
ship to be used for trading purposes on the Great Lakes west of Niagara
Falls. Cayuga Creek, six miles above the cataract, was selected as the
most convenient site for the work, and at this point trees were felled,
a clearing made, a warehouse erected, and the "Griffon" begun. Except
the timbers, everything for the construction and equipment of the ship
had to be brought up the St. Lawrence from Quebec, and the building
itself had to be done by mutinous workmen who lived in a wilderness
surrounded by hostile Indians. Late in the fall the project was begun,
and with but slight hints of the serious difficulties Tonty states
tersely that "the vessel was completed in the Spring of 1679."
Self-denying as usual, Tonty did not at first sail on the "Griffon," but
went ahead by canoe to pick up some men at the straits (Detroit). Here
on the 10th of August his signal columns of smoke were seen from the
ship as she ploughed the waters on the first trading voyage to the
Indians of the upper lakes.

The expedition stopped for a time at Mackinac, while Tonty made a side
trip to the "Soo" and then all went to Green Bay. From this place the
vessel was sent back laden with furs, while Tonty and La Salle pushed up
Lake Michigan and reached the Illinois by way of the St. Joseph and
Kankakee Rivers. At the foot of Peoria Lake they built Fort Crvecoeur
and made a treaty with the fickle savages who dwelt near by. At the same
time they began to construct another vessel for use upon the rivers, and
detached Father Hennepin, the Recollect, on a voyage of exploration to
the headwaters of the Mississippi.

Meanwhile nothing was heard from the "Griffon," so La Salle started in
March on the 1,500-mile trip overland to Fort Frontenac in search of
news. At Cayuga Creek, and again on arrival at the fort, his great fear
was confirmed. The "Griffon" was lost with cargo and crew, but how and
where was never learned. Shortly afterward two _voyageurs_ came in from
Tonty with more ill tidings. Tonty wrote that soon after La Salle's
departure he had started north along the shores of the Illinois River in
search of a site for a post and during his absence the men at Fort
Crvecoeur had mutinied, destroyed the fort, plundered the magazine,
and fled to the woods with their spoil. By this misfortune Tonty was
deprived of all his food and ammunition and compelled to seek refuge
among the Illinois Indians. From this haven he was driven by the
aggressions of the insatiable Iroquois, and with a few faithful
followers he made a winter retreat of terrible hardship to Green Bay.

La Salle, meanwhile, had hurried back to the Illinois country to relieve
Tonty, and not finding him there he followed him to Mackinac in the
greatest anxiety, for both La Salle and Tonty had been convinced by
malicious reports that the other had been slain.

The extent of the disaster was only appreciated clearly when the friends
met at Mackinac three months later. To Tonty personally the consequences
were not serious, but all of La Salle's fortune was lost with the
"Griffon." Nevertheless, La Salle's ambition was only momentarily
depressed. During the winter his spirits rose to even greater heights,
and finding in Tonty a comrade serene and hopeful in the face of all
they began their preparations to explore the Mississippi.

The summer was gone before the expedition could start. This added to
their perils, for in the fall Lake Michigan is subject to severe and
sudden storms. Rough experience they had, but by keeping close to the
shore they reached the Chicago River on December 21 (1681) without
serious mishap. Paddling up the south branch they dragged the canoes and
baggage on sledges across the frozen waters of Mud Lake and the adjacent
marshes which made up the Chicago portage, and continued on sledges over
the thick ribbed ice of the Desplaines. Upon reaching the Illinois
River, they launched their canoes, and by February 6 (1682) the
Mississippi lay before them.

Tonty, who saw the river for the first time, said it was grand, large,
and deep, comparable to the mighty St. Lawrence. The real object of the
adventure was now in sight. Boldly they pressed on. Day after day and
mile after mile the little band drove steadily southward. With senses
keenly alert to the mysterious perils of the hostile shores and
treacherous waters, they felt their way deeper and deeper into the
unknown. They passed the mouth of the Missouri--a roaring torrent of
muddy water which hurled into the Mississippi great trees and islands
wrenched from the inconstant shores. Hills rose from the water with
gentle slope, or cliffs of forbidding height towered over the river only
to descend to reedy banks or to meadows black with buffalo. Then the
Mississippi broadened into a long lake whose marshy edges were curtained
by the waving stems of cane.

At last, after three adventurous months, they reached the upper end of
the Delta. Here they separated--La Salle, Tonty, and D'Autray took each
a different arm of the river and swept rapidly down the current.

In three days their little gondolas of bark were tossing on the blue
waters of the Gulf. They met as agreed, and went into camp on the low
wind-swept marsh that divides the river channels. The latitude of the
mouth was carefully taken, but unhappily they had no instruments with
which to determine the longitude. It was a fatal omission, for on it La
Salle was to risk his life--and lose. On the next day a cross was
erected with appropriate ceremonies and possession taken in the name of
the King (April 9, 1682).

The first part of the plan was satisfactorily accomplished. Next their
provisions failed, and La Salle became desperately ill, so Tonty started
alone for Quebec to notify Frontenac of their success. Waylaid by
hostile Indians and narrowly escaping the stake, he nevertheless
completed his mission and returned to Mackinac. Three months later La
Salle joined him at the Island and together they returned to construct
upon "Starved Rock" the historic Fort St. Louis of the Illinois.

This rock was a sandstone cliff 150 feet high and accessible only from
one side. It was first called _Le Rocher_, but after the Indian tragedy
of later years it was known everywhere as "Starved Rock." On its acre
broad top the fort was built and the single approach was buttressed and
barricaded until it was impregnable.

It was now necessary to enlist the interest of the Redmen, and from his
lofty fortress Tonty went east and west, north and south in search of
allies, until in the great valley beneath the rock were assembled the
Miamis, Shawnees, Piankishaus, and Illini. Their tepees dotted the plain
and their canoes swarmed upon the river: twenty thousand Indians
mutually suspicious and antagonistic, but all leagued to France.

The control of the fur trade and the supremacy of the Mississippi seemed
certain. To complete the long, thin line of fortified posts which was to
connect the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the Gulf of Mexico, a colony must
be placed at the mouth of the River, and this could be done only with
the aid of the King. To secure this Tonty was left in command of the
fort while La Salle made the wearisome journey to France. So they
parted--as it happened, forever.

How La Salle returned with his fleet, missed the mouth of the river, and
perished on the plains of Texas has been told and retold.

But deep in the wilderness came the news from Quebec that La Salle's
expedition had landed on the Gulf, and with twenty men Tonty made the
second descent of the river to meet this friend. He sent boats east and
west of the Delta for ninety miles, but he found no sign along the
lonely Gulf, and when he gave up the quest he left a letter for La Salle
with a chief of the Mougoulaches, who lived on the Mississippi about a
hundred miles above the present city of New Orleans.

Upon his return to the Rock he received orders from Governor Denonville,
Frontenac's successor, to return to Canada and join his cousin Duluth in
an expedition against the Iroquois which the Governor was preparing.

After a year of this warfare he again sought his rock and learned that
Joutel with two survivors of the La Salle expedition had arrived with
the report that La Salle was well and on his way north by way of the Red
River. This was a wilful deception, and while Tonty was preparing
joyfully to receive his chief, the melancholy truth came out that La
Salle had been assassinated. Again the tireless Tonty moved down the
Mississippi and up the Red River to succor the survivors and punish the
murderers. The latter especially he desired most ardently. Into village
after village of hostile savages he marched almost alone. Boldly he
demanded the murderers of La Salle, but all was vain. Traces of his
countrymen indeed he found, but only such as convinced him that the
expedition was totally lost. He continued to advance, hoping against
hope, until he came within three days' march of the scene of the
assassination. Here his men mutinied and he was compelled to return to
Fort St. Louis.

Although devoid of money and influence, Tonty henceforth occupied the
Rock and strove to arouse the court to a new effort. But the government
which had received a gleam of light from the enthusiastic and forceful
presentation of La Salle now felt that it had been over-persuaded by a
visionary whose failure had brought suspicion upon the venture and
distrust upon the adventurers. This feeling, which was encouraged by the
many enemies of La Salle, fell with peculiar force upon Tonty, whose
remoteness and isolation made counter-argument impossible. Through
observation and sympathy he had become thoroughly imbued with the high
ambitions of his chief, and he saw with equal clearness the necessity
and the feasibility of their fulfilment. Ten years had elapsed since
Tonty came to America full of hope and confidence--the able colleague of
an inspiring leader. What was the result? La Salle was dead; the
"Griffon" lost; Fort Frontenac in the hands of his French competitors,
and Tonty remained in charge of the one post in the valley that flew the
flag of France. In spite of these disasters much had been accomplished.
The Mississippi had been followed to the sea and the way was open for
commercial exploitation, military possession, and colonization. To these
ends Tonty devoted himself.

The story so briefly reviewed depends thus far on various well-known
"relations," as well as Tonty's own reports. Henceforth the narrative
becomes more circumstantial, but the sources are few and scanty, the
information imperfect, and not hitherto emphasized in respect to Tonty.
The incidents themselves, so trivial apparently, are the premonitory
drops which are to culminate in the storm of the Seven Years' War, when
Teuton and Roman, impelled by the hereditary animosity of centuries,
are to meet in a desperate struggle wherein the extensive patrimony of
the Redmen is to be the reward of the victor.

France, with her power of initiative unhampered by a hostile parliament,
sat in trouble and uncertainty. She was not unmindful of her
opportunity, but she doubted its value. Moreover her attention was
strongly distracted; William III of England was incessantly busy. By
diplomacy or by intrigue, by secret or open war, he harried the French
in Europe and threatened their colonial possessions. To oppose him
required a vigilant and unflagging energy. Besides this enemy beyond his
borders, Louis XIV was absorbed at home in two personal ambitions,
apparently unrelated, but really convergent in tendency and termination.
In order to satisfy his mistress De Maintenon, and to secure religious
uniformity throughout his dominions, he adopted a course of persecution
toward the Huguenots which drove hundreds of thousands of the most
industrious and productive of his subjects out of France, not to the
colonies as a higher politics and even self-interest demanded, but into
the arms of the enemy.

At the same time Louis was draining the kingdom to the last sou for the
construction of his royal residence at Versailles.

In America, where life was less complex, the compelling importance of
the local issue was clearly foreseen, and Frontenac, La Salle, Tonty,
Iberville, and Bienville set out gallantly to perfect the French title
and assure its defense. Of these Bienville alone lived to see the
failure of their plans. In the long contest, characterized by singleness
of aim and self-sacrifice, the way was marked by many tragedies among
his relatives and friends. Yet in chagrin and humiliation he saw the
results of their consecrated efforts slip from the indifferent hands of
France. It brought him broken-hearted to the grave. The death of his
brother, Iberville, the loss of his influence at court, and the industry
of his enemies may have given him some intimation of the futility of his
struggle with fate, but it made no change in his resolution. So
throughout the life of Tonty one sees an inexorable purpose, but also
one has only to listen to hear the flutter of those dim, shadowy wings
that so frequently intervene between man and accomplishment. The fruits
of these activities were not lost, though the lifelong devotion of the
leaders availed them nothing in a personal sense. Nor did the efforts of
inconstant France, nor yet of victorious Britain, disturb in the least
that relentless onward movement which had its origin in the European
wars and its culmination in the Great Republic.

It is said that all men are divided in two classes: the Olympians who
rule events and receive as a natural tribute all the gifts of nature,
and the Titans who with courage and manly fortitude forever strive
against the decrees of the gods; more than many does Tonty seem to
belong to the latter class. The Imp of the Perverse attended his steps
and misfortune met him at every turn, from the loss of his hand at
Lebisso to his melancholy death at Mobile, and yet no man more strongly
enlists our affectionate admiration.

Possibly for this reason there is an appealing significance in the
career of Tonty--an intimately personal relation which is absent from
the gloomy La Salle and the brilliant Iberville. Probably it is due to
this quality that so many writers have chosen Tonty as the theme of
historical description or of romantic narration. Unhappily there exists
but meager evidence of his many interests, and yet wherever he appears,
be it on the brink of success or in the midst of actual or impending
disaster, we see his sturdy figure serene, resourceful, and undismayed.
Every incident in his life is particularly interesting and appealing to
the residents of Illinois, but we like best and quite naturally to
associate him with the lonely sandstone pinnacle where for twenty years
he made his home: a home, indeed, but not the abode of peace. The savage
foes around the fort he could meet with diplomacy or with open and
successful war, but craft alone could avail against the enemies he had
inherited from La Salle. With stealth and greedy cunning they enmeshed
him in treachery within the walls, and conspired to destroy him in
Quebec and Montreal. So year followed year, and from his rocky fortress
he maintained his command over the Mississippi River valley, but his
eyes were turned ever longingly and anxiously to France.

Throughout this expansive region, where the murmuring winds, the flowing
waters, and the roving Redmen held fickle dominion, he hoped to see
colonies of his industrious countrymen, while ever before him was the
noble vision of the Great River which through hundreds of miles of
darkling forest glides in stately curves to the southern Gulf. Like
Ulysses on Calypso's isle, Tonty's heart was destined to be wrung with
ten years of longing, and yet the period was not wasted in lamentations,
but rather it was spent in manly, albeit fruitless, petitions to the
King for permission to undertake, and the support that was necessary to,
the plan he burned to execute.

Then Frontenac, who had been recalled to the governorship of New France,
suddenly died, and with the loss of this sole remaining friend who could
influentially approach the court, hope fled. Yet the time was now at
hand, and after ten years of pleading, after ten years of lonely vigil,
the court was again aroused. It was ordained that the plans of La Salle
should be taken up, the mouth of the river be definitely located by way
of the Gulf, and a settlement planted thereon. All this was arranged,
but it was to be undertaken, not by Tonty, the natural heir who craved
the command, but by Le Moyne d'Iberville, whose dashing exploits in
Hudson Bay had won the favor of the king.

By the treaty of Ryswick, which had just been concluded, the English
posts on the northern bay were safe from attack and Iberville turned his
restless mind and conquering hand to the problems in the South.

There was a bright possibility that here also he could meet and baffle
the English foe, although open warfare was forbidden. His expedition
left France on September 5, 1698, and on the 2d of the following March,
Iberville entered the mouth of the Mississippi. He had with him the
reports of all previous explorers, including that confusing narrative
which had been attributed to Tonty, and since it was necessary
definitely to identify the waters he explored, he made a long journey up
stream in search of the fabulous "fork" which had been so positively
described by Hennepin as a characteristic of the lower river.

Failing to find this landmark, but convinced that the river must be the
Mississippi, he returned to the fleet. During the backward journey he
learned of the existence of that famous letter to La Salle which Tonty
had left with the Indians fourteen years before. This he secured in
exchange for a hatchet, and all uncertainty disappeared.

Then followed the settlement at Biloxi from which Iberville soon
departed, leaving the new colony under the guardianship of his young
brother Le Moyne de Bienville, and Sieur de Sauvole as titular governor.

The Great Canadian's plans were those of La Salle vastly amplified by
his far-seeing military brain. Not only would he unite the French posts
along the Mississippi River, and where necessary establish new ones, so
that a glittering armored line would hold back the advance of the
English, but in addition he hoped by skilful management to form the
Indians into an auxiliary corps to make guerilla war, harass the English
front, and hold it at the Alleghanies.

In January, 1700, Iberville's ships again entered the Gulf with
provisions, money, and men to reinforce the establishment at Biloxi and
erect the new post upon the lower Mississippi. It was none too soon. The
irrepressible English, relying upon the indefinite westward sweep of
King Charles's Carolina grant, had already entered the river to take
possession. To be sure they had been induced to leave, by the diplomatic
representations of Bienville, but Iberville fully realized the emergency
and prepared at once to meet it.

After some exploration of the neighboring creeks and bayous, he sent
Bienville up to a tribe of Indians known as the Baygoulas. It was
hoped, and justly, that these Indians who knew the low and marshy shores
of the river intimately might point out a site for the fort that was
free from inundation. Four days later Iberville followed his brother,
and at a point about thirty-eight miles below the present city of New
Orleans Fort La Boulaye was begun.

It is here, on the 16th of February, 1700, that the mysterious weaving
of the loom of Destiny again brought Tonty into the web. Sauvole, the
governor, had written him in the summer of 1699 that Biloxi was occupied
and had invited him to come down and visit the new settlement. Whether
an internal conflict preceded his decision, or whether he felt the envy
and jealousy natural under the circumstances, we have no means of
knowing; we only know that in response to Sauvole's letter he generously
descended the river to concert with Iberville extensive plans for French
dominion in the valley.

Now Iberville possessed to a high degree that magnetism, that subtle
fire of personality, which inheres to leadership, and with the habit of
subordination that Tonty had acquired with his military discipline he
fell a willing victim to the congenial ambitions and mesmeric enthusiasm
of the great Canadian. From now on we shall find him furthering the
ambitious designs of the statesmanlike Iberville with the same zeal and
efficiency with which he served La Salle.

Two days were spent beside the rising walls of the fort, during which
they discussed the news from France and the needs of the colony. The
political situation with reference to their Spanish and English rivals
was carefully considered, and Iberville unfolded his far-reaching plans
to one whose co-operation would be highly important. Here also Tonty
definitely disavowed the authorship of the so-called memoirs which
someone in France had published under his name. These memoirs, abounding
in exaggerations and untruths, had caused Iberville much delay and
annoyance in his endeavor to identify the river. Besides the erection of
the fort, Iberville planned at this time to explore Red River and the
Mississippi as far as the Natchez village, and since this was the third
time Tonty had visited the lower Mississippi, his presence and
experience gave great satisfaction.

In the camp itself, however, there was no comfort, for the cabins were
not ready, the men lacked shelter, and the weather was bitterly cold.
Large fires were maintained, but water froze a few feet from the blaze.
Father Du Rhu says it was colder than he had known it for five years in
France. Then the weather moderated, and rather unexpectedly Iberville
ordered the advance. Du Rhu, whose relation we quote, is a captious
critic and his own sufferings are his principal theme, yet the journey
up the river was by no means pleasant. For instance, he says, on
February 21, "scenery all about the same--nothing but cane and large
woods--Lord, how it rains, absolutely drowned yet we keep going--our
clothes dry on us and we box the compass in the many turns on the river.
We land for the night very tired and knee deep in mud. We try to dry
blankets and clothes before the small fire but it rains again in the
midst of all. We have our backs to the rain all night long and we still
eat coarsely ground corn--always corn diluted with the muddy water of
the river."

The only occurrence that Du Rhu mentions with enthusiasm is the meeting
with Le Sueur whom they overtook on a portage. He had come over with
Iberville and was going to Minnesota on a geological expedition in the
first decked boat that sailed the river. This meeting was a notable
event, for Le Sueur gave his weary countrymen a feast that warmed their
hearts into paeans of praise. Du Rhu was loath to leave these flesh
pots, but the expedition had an imperious commander to whom food was
fuel and nothing more. So after a brief delay they bade Le Sueur
farewell and hastened on. The days were much alike. From daybreak till
dark they toiled through the rain against the swift current and ate as
best they could their coarse corn. The scenery was not impressive
except for its extent, but in those first voyages everything that
happened about the river had its significance, and particularly was Du
Rhu interested in the much-discussed "fork" of the river described by
Hennepin, cursed by Iberville, and source of debate by historians ever
since. Du Rhu's relation locates it about twelve miles below the village
of the Baygoulas, but he says nobody would have noticed it if it had not
been pointed out, since there are a hundred places on the river that
more nearly answer the description. He is quite disgusted with his
spiritual brother, and the rivalry between his Jesuit order and the
Recollects permits him to express himself about Hennepin right
vigorously.

The journey was a diplomatic and military expedition into a country
potentially hostile, so every precaution was observed to keep the
natives along the shores friendly and respectful. The first important
tribe encountered was that of the Baygoulas, and the French halted a few
miles below their landing-place to prepare themselves for the event.

The party made its official entry upon the village with great
stateliness and pomp. All the lessons learned from experience with the
Canadian Indians were profitably practiced in the South. Three days were
spent in the interchange of courtesies and ceremonials with the
Baygoulas, during which Iberville learned that Englishmen among the
Chickasaws were devising plots against the French missionaries and Tonty
was detailed to command a detachment and to take by force, if necessary,
the Englishmen from that tribe.

So the expedition divided. Iberville went on to the Natchez nation to
arrange with them a treaty of friendship and to prepare with Bienville
for an expedition up Red River, while Tonty returned to the new fort (La
Boulaye) to secure the equipment for his enterprise. In some way he
there learned that the two Englishmen he was sent to capture were so
well supported by the Chickasaw nation that the capture would be
impracticable without bringing on a Chickasaw war, which was highly
undesirable.

Nevertheless Tonty finished his preparations and advanced up the river.
At the village of the Oumas he met Iberville, who had been compelled by
illness to turn over the command of the Red River expedition to
Bienville while he hurried back to the fleet. It seemed best after some
discussion to abandon the Chickasaw enterprise, and Tonty continued up
the river toward Starved Rock with his heavily laden canoes.

Leaving the Mississippi, he branched off into the gentler waters of the
Illinois. Spring had scarcely begun and the prairies were dotted with
great herds of buffalo looming high and dark against the dead grass. On
either side the channel was bordered with swamps of tangled grass and
red furze and extensive lowlands partly overflowed, from which protruded
great stumps and confused piles of gray and fallen timber. Gradually the
valley narrowed, the forested ramparts approached the river, and
occasionally a cliff of bare sandstone shouldered its way to the water.
On the highest and most conspicuous of these cliffs was Fort St. Louis.

Promptly upon his arrival Tonty took steps to discover the relations of
the neighboring tribes to the English, and learned that their faith and
interest in the French was already wavering under hostile influences.
Such was the report he despatched to Biloxi, where Iberville had arrived
only to learn that his other rivals, the Spaniards, had in his absence
paid a ceremonial visit to the colony. This visit, ostensibly friendly,
was made in such force that the French felt assured that the Spanish had
come with a sinister intent which only their preparedness and diplomacy
had foiled.

In May, 1700, Iberville took his ships to France, and shortly thereafter
Tonty must have come to Biloxi, for Sauvole says that although food was
scarce and the mutinous Canadians a source of tribulation, yet he
intended to care for them and furnish them supplies as long as possible,
as well as to Tonty and the missionaries. The food supply was a serious
problem in the little colony, the more so since the irresponsible
_voyageurs_ and colonists would not till the soil, but drifted hither
and thither and spent their time either in hunting, searching for
pearls, or flirting with the none too diffident Indian girls. There were
few native products to be sent out, and but few ships came in, and those
only when ordered. The "Enflamme" was one of these, and as soon as
possible she was sent to San Domingo and France to fetch provisions. So
strict were the orders in those early days of "protection," that when
she sailed Governor Sauvole's principal satisfaction in her departure
arose from his success in preventing her from carrying off the beaver
skins which the _voyageurs_ had brought down the Mississippi. Callirs,
the governor of Canada, had already made official protest against this
diversion of trade from his own colony and the King was disposed to
support him. Callirs was glad to have the colonies established on the
Gulf, but he thought they should be made a part of Canada and contribute
to her welfare and his own aggrandizement. Being unwilling to assume any
share of the burden, and unreasonably jealous of the feeble little
settlement in the South, he even refused to allow a post to be
established on the Miami River which Tonty had wished to erect in
conjunction with La Forest and the Jesuits.

Meanwhile Tonty, who had journeyed to Mackinac to arrange for this post
if possible, returned to Biloxi about the middle of December, 1701. He
found Sauvole dead and Bienville in command of the colony. Shortly after
his arrival, there came a swift shallop from Pensacola announcing
Iberville's return with two frigates and a large supply of provisions.
This news was most welcome to the hungry garrison, but Bienville was
especially pleased to learn that two more of his brothers, Le Moyne de
Chateauguay and Le Moyne de Serigny, had accompanied Iberville.

The shallop also brought orders that the colony should move at once to a
new site on the Mobile River. The difference between the French and
English colonies is nowhere better illustrated than in the ease and
celerity with which the French made a change of base. The colonists were
not convened to debate the question and pass resolutions--not at all;
the order was given, the day set, and at the appointed time all were in
motion. Only twenty men were left under Boisbriand to hold Biloxi while
the rest under Bienville and Tonty set out for Mobile. On Dauphine
Island, at the mouth of Mobile Bay, they found Serigny and Chateauguay
busily constructing a royal magazine. The bay itself was a scene of
activity. Canoes rushed here and there, traversiers moved back and forth
between the ships and various parts of the bay, and from the fleet
itself the supplies were rapidly unloaded. Bienville and Tonty went up
the Mobile River to select the new location and start the clearing.
Iberville arrived at Dauphine Island from Pensacola a few days later and
took his frigate over the bar into Mobile Bay. Thence by small boats he
started for the river.

On March 3 he reached the site of Mobile twenty-seven miles up Mobile
River from the present city. The sound of axes and the crash of falling
timber met him on every side. A boat was building for service on river
and bay, and a fort with four bastions was in process of erection.

The establishment was located on the river bank elevated twenty feet
above the water and surrounded by the myriad stems of white and red
oaks, laurels, sassafras, sycamore, and black walnut trees. However, it
was upon the illimitable forests of Norway pine that the eyes of the
sailor, Iberville, rested with the most delight, not on account of the
elegance and stateliness of the growth, but because the tall, tapering,
and almost branchless boles were so readily available for masts. Nor yet
was he insensible to the charms of the place, for he reports that the
shores and all the neighboring country for leagues beside the winding
river were perfectly beautiful. With great satisfaction he laid out the
lines of the city and made the allotments to the colonists.

Beautiful as it was upon the river, the colony was not moved from Biloxi
for this reason, nor on account of the excellent harbor, nor yet
because it was convenient for the Indian trade, although all these
advantages had their weight, but the real reason was political. At
Mobile the colony was well placed to be a thorn in the side of England
and a constant menace to Spain. With this in view the friendship and
trade of the neighboring Indians was most vital to success, so couriers
were sent out to summon the Mobilians, Tohomes, and Alabamas to
conference. The Choctaws and Chickasaws were more distant, but they were
also far more numerous and more warlike. The Chickasaws furthermore were
in close touch with the English and kindly disposed toward them, which
made the mission to them one of difficulty and danger. This important
embassy could be conducted only by Tonty. Iberville ordered that Tonty
should be abundantly supplied with merchandise for presents, and he adds
the characteristic note, "if the supplies cannot be furnished from the
Royal Magazine let him get them from the Commissary and I will pay for
them."

There are three so-called "trading-paths" between the Tennessee River
and the Gulf which formed, says Adair, the principal routes of
communication. These followed, and indeed grew out of, the
north-and-south migrations of the buffalo herds as they changed their
feeding-grounds.

The most easterly left the Mobile River near its junction with the bay,
and, running northwesterly through the present town of Citronelle, led
to the large Choctaw village of Hiowanna near the present town of
Shubuta on the Chickasaway River. Then, following a generally northern
direction along the watershed between the Chickasaway and Tombigbee
Rivers, it passed through the principal Choctaw towns and was lost at
last in the midst of the Chickasaw country.

To secure better hunting the villages were widely scattered. The
headwaters of the Pearl and Chickasaway Rivers interpenetrate like the
crowded tops of adjacent trees, and among these myriad creeks and
streams the Choctaw villages were sprinkled in fruit-like profusion.
Still farther north was the Chickasaw nation, less numerous but fiercer
and less tractable than the Choctaws, and strongly under the English
influence. Like the Choctaws also, their towns were located among the
inter-penetrations of the eastward branch of the Yazoo River, arching
to its source among the hills of northern Mississippi and the multiple
creeks which gather to form the twin heads of the Tombigbee River. At
this point the "trading-path" from the south ended, but hither also ran
good trails from the north, from the Mississippi River, and also,
unhappily for the French, from Carolina.

[Illustration: A section from a MS map entitled: "A Map of the Southern
Indian District of North America. Compiled under the direction of John
Stuart, Esq., His Majesty's Superintendant of Indian Affairs. By Joseph
Purcell." [Undated _ca._ 1765.] (Edward E. Ayer collection of the
Newberry Library.) The red line indicates Tonty's Expeditions.]

The trail from Mobile was the basis of the old "Tennessee Road," and
over this path traveled Tonty with his little party of eight Frenchmen
and two Indian guides. On the south he left the vast low, sandy barrens,
covered thickly with long, coarse grass, canes, reeds, and sedge,
interspersed with pines, bays, and laurels, an evergreen thicket almost
impenetrable to sunlight, but on this account the chosen resort of
wildcats, bears, wolves, and panthers, who found a secure retreat and an
abundance of food in its deep and tangled fastnesses. Ponds surrounded
by oak woods lay embosomed like jewels, and forests were set like
emeralds amid a wealth of silver waters.

Near the rivers, swamps were numerous, and giant cypress trees raised
their lofty heads into the heavy vaporous atmosphere. As Tonty pressed
on toward the north the sand became orange in color and was covered with
fine grass and herbage, abundantly shaded. Live oak, hickory, poplar,
magnolia, walnut trees, and ghostly sycamores appeared, the limbs of
which were heavily festooned with Spanish moss and interlaced with huge
vines. Wild turkeys fattened on the fruits and nuts that dropped to the
ground, buzzards soared on ragged wing high overhead, while the tree
tops resounded with the harsh cries of gaily colored paroquets and the
liquid notes of mockingbirds.

Through this great artery two hundred and fifty miles long pulsed the
life of the tribes; here the solitary Indian lurked like a shadow, or
long files of painted warriors sped swiftly in search of their prey.

But Tonty's mission was more prosaic. He bore not the war club and
tomahawk as portents of strife, but the white swan's wings as emblems of
peace. From village to village and from chieftain to chieftain, he
carried the call to the Council. Among the Choctaws,[7] as usual, he met
with a cordial reception and quick response. Then leaving their friendly
tepees he marched northward through the vast savannahs that form the
southern portion of the Chickasaw domain. As he neared the end of his
journey the spring storms began and the lowlands and swamps became
almost impassable morasses. The travelers sank to their thighs in water
and soft mud, while overhead the continuous rains kept them drenched to
the skin. Upon arriving at the villages Tonty found that the physical
difficulties of the journey were trivial in comparison with the business
diplomatic. To secure the interest and favor of the English-loving
Chickasaws demanded all his tact and experience. Stately conferences
accompanied by presents were followed in dignified sequence by large
ceremonious councils with much oratory. Gradually the suspicion and
unfriendliness of the Indians diminished. The gifts and skilful
eloquence of the Frenchman prevailed. The Calumet was danced, the
delegates appointed, and Tonty started homeward.

On March 19 a runner came post haste to Iberville announcing that Tonty
had left the Choctaw villages for Mobile on March 14, with a party of
seven Chickasaw chiefs and four Choctaws. Five days later another
message was brought in saying that Tonty was among the Tohomes and would
enter Mobile on the 25th with his embassy.

The little settlement was fittingly prepared for the reception and at
eleven o'clock Tonty arrived with his delegation. Iberville received the
savages with impressive dignity and with the elaborate ceremony so dear
to barbaric hearts. Many presents were distributed, and the following
day was appointed for the council.

Morning came and the chiefs were assembled. Bienville, the master of
Indian dialects, interpreted sympathetically for his brother, just as
their famous father had interpreted for Frontenac in the ever-memorable
council at Cataraqui. With a generous display of additional presents
before their eyes, Iberville painted for the Indians in blackest colors
the insidious designs of the English. He portrayed them arming tribe
against tribe until enfeebled by internecine strife the broken remnants
would fall an easy prey to the avaricious English slave traders.

He enumerated their murdered brethren and those already enslaved, and
showed how the steady invasion of the English would soon overwhelm their
lands. Then he pronounced a glowing tribute on the French, their desire
to live at peace with their Indian neighbors who would be benefited by
the merchandise and trade, and emphasized the justice and protection
that would come with the French dominion.

Next, for fear the Indians might forget his arguments, either through
stupidity, eagerness for war, or the predilection of the Chickasaws for
the English, he added a few threats. "If the badly advised Chickasaws do
not become enemies of the English and friends of the French as the
Choctaws have done, then," he assured them, "he would arm the Choctaws,
Tohomes, Mobilians, and Natchez against them and instead of restraining
the Illinois Indians as hitherto, he would incite them to war upon the
Chickasaws. But if the Chickasaws and Choctaws continued at peace," he
added, "he would establish a trading station on the upper waters of the
Tombigbee between the two nations to which each could resort with
convenience and safety." Having finished his harangue, he distributed
the presents and ostentatiously bought back from the Chickasaws a
Choctaw slave who had been obtained from the English. Under the
influence of this rare mixture of flattery, argument, menace, and
bribe--particularly the latter--the savages expressed themselves as
quite convinced and desirous of peace. To Iberville, also, the
conference gave great satisfaction, for he computed that by this treaty
he had leagued to France about 2,000 Chickasaws and 4,000 Choctaws.

Even the commissary La Salle, notoriously hostile to Iberville and his
"league of brothers," as he was pleased to call them, was moved to say
in his report that the colony was under great obligations to MM.
Iberville and Tonty who have conducted this most important negotiation.

At the conclusion of the peace conference Tonty made one of his
mysterious trips away from the colony. Only by incidental reference too
brief to permit deductions, do we learn of his journeyings, and rarely
do the records say whither. It might be in this instance that he took
men and supplies up the Tombigbee River to plant the new station, since
Iberville writes to the minister that he had established such a post 210
miles up the Tombigbee between the tribes of the Chickasaws and Choctaws
and put Tonty in charge, or he may have returned with the Indians to
reinforce their several reports; but at all events from some inscrutable
expedition Penicaut relates that Tonty hastened back in the hope of
seeing Iberville before his departure, but the ship had sailed only a
few days before.

It was fortunate, indeed, for Tonty that he had made new friends, for at
this time came the royal decree which required the discontinuance of
Fort St. Louis at "Starved Rock," and henceforth Tonty made his home at
Mobile. The environment was doubtless most congenial. In the old map of
Fort Louis de la Mobile we find his plot of ground just west of the fort
surrounded and by such names as Bienville, Boisbriand, Le Sueur, and the
romantic St. Denis. In this little colony of one hundred and thirty
people rested the entire defense and title of the French to the vast
territory of Louisiana extending from the Gulf to the Great Lakes and
from the vague English boundaries on the east to the Rocky Mountains.
Here also was the governor, Le Moyne de Bienville, a youth of
twenty-two.

Little or no mention of Tonty appears in the scanty records of the next
year, but we know that the settlement, so small and weak, was by no
means spiritless. It was a busy center of intrigue, diplomacy, and war,
and we can well believe that the wisdom and experience of Tonty was a
comfort and support to the young governor into whose adroit, tactful,
and masterful hands all threads ran.

As King says, "Bienville was wrestling with the English and Indians and
cajoling the Spaniards for the territory he occupied, as well as
fighting the suspicion, distrust, and calumny of those beneath him.
Warding off famine and disease with one hand and guiding his leash of
turbulent Canadians with the other, nevertheless he seems to have
conducted his administration through the torpid encouragement of his
superior, and the active insults of his inferiors with the same
stolidity of determination with which he conducted his pioneers through
the freezing swamps of the Red River country."

Everywhere were unrest, discord, and primal passions striving for
expression, yet with bribe and caress, with menace and blow, Bienville
controlled the enemy, both white and red, and led his colony forward.

The war of the Spanish succession broke out, and into the villages and
cornfields of the French and Spanish Indians came the enterprising
invaders from Carolina. At the same time the French and Spanish stations
on the seaboard were kept in tense expectancy of the English fleet.

The Spanish, badly provided with arms and food, usually shut themselves
in their forts and sent frantic appeals for aid to Bienville, and he,
realizing clearly the necessity of forming the Spaniards as well as the
Indians into buffer nations to fend off the English, generally responded
with supplies of food or munitions of war, or both.

All the tribes east of the Mississippi were kept in a ferment by the
English traders, so that one uprising after another took place, the
French missionaries were killed, tribe warred against tribe, and village
after village was destroyed. In consequence the infant colony, barely
able to stand on its own feet, must stagger out to succor the Spanish,
punish the revolting tribes, or avenge the murder of a countryman.

The killing of a Frenchman was an affront that could not go unpunished,
but when Father Davion came down the Mississippi and reported the murder
of a missionary by the Coroas, the French establishment was so small and
feeble that Bienville delegated the Arkansas Indians to avenge it. They
undertook the commission joyfully and executed it mercilessly. It was
the aim of the French to secure obedience and subjection rather than
extermination, and for this reason the infliction of punishment was
rarely left to the Indians alone, for they were too radical. The next
conflict was with the Alabamas, or Upper Creeks, whose principal towns
occupied the site of the present city of Montgomery (Alabama), and
extended along the banks of the Tallapoosa for many miles to the east
and north.

At no time in the absence of the ships did the colony have an excess of
provisions, and Bienville constantly tried to protect his granary,
either by sending some of his men to take a much-coveted holiday among
the Indians, or by buying food from the tribes whenever it was
possible. Recognizing these conditions, the Alabamas were instigated by
the English to come down the river with the story that the English had
forsaken them and that they had corn to spare. Upon this information a
detail of five men under Lieutenant Labrie was sent back with the party
of Alabamas to purchase a supply.

Three weeks later Labrie returned with a broken arm and reported that
after passing in perfect security and good-will through the villages of
the neighboring tribes, they came to a point about two days' march from
the Alabama villages when their guides announced that they would go
forward and prepare the chiefs to receive them suitably. Upon this
pretext they disappeared, but the same night they returned in force and
murdered all but Labrie, who fortunately escaped by jumping into the
river, although a well-aimed hatchet broke his arm.

It was impossible to overlook such an offense, and Bienville notified
the Mobilians and Tohomes to prepare for war. With Tonty and St. Denis
as associates in command, the force, about two hundred strong, started
up the river. It was planned to ascend the Mobile and Alabama Rivers,
then land at some convenient point, and by marching rapidly across the
country fall upon and surprise the Alabamas.

The Mobilians were the main reliance of the French as counselors,
guides, and burden-bearers, but it was soon discovered that they
secretly sympathized with the Alabamas and that their principal business
was to cause delay. After advancing for eighteen days the French leaders
realized that most of the Indian contingent had deserted; that the
guides had caused much useless labor, and probably had warned the
Alabamas, so the expedition was abandoned and the troop returned home,
as Penicaut remarks, in four days.

The expedition was abandoned, but by no means the vengeance. Some days
later Bienville gathered a fleet of ten canoes and with Tonty and St.
Denis left secretly with a force entirely French. In twelve days they
reached the spot where the four Frenchmen had been killed. Here they
discovered the camp-fires of the Alabamas and a number of loaded canoes
drawn up on the shore. It was a large hunting party. Bienville was for
attacking at once, but Tonty and St. Denis voted for delay and a night
attack. Scouts were sent out to locate the camp, and the French dropped
back a couple of miles to wait for darkness. At the proper time they
pushed cautiously up the stream, landed, and picked their way through
the dense underbrush toward the enemy.

The Alabamas were encamped on a bluff difficult of access, to which the
only approach was through a thicket of brambles and vines. When the
fires had burned down to a dim red glow Bienville thought the Indians
were asleep and ordered the advance. As they went forward in single
file, a Canadian stepped on a cane which broke with a loud snap, and
instantly a cry of alarm went up from the lodges, while every Frenchman
stood still in his tracks.

There being no repetition of the noise the Indians quickly settled down
and after some delay the French again advanced. As they drew near their
footfalls were heard by the wary savages; the war cry arose from all
sides; a gun was fired and a Frenchman fell. The Indian women and
children fled deep into the forest, protected by the warriors who
retreated slowly after. All but four escaped, because the darkness was
so dense that the French could not see where to aim. Bienville and his
men remained in the camp all night, but the Indians did not return.
Finding no trace of the enemy at daybreak they burned the cabins and
conveyed the captured canoes to Mobile laden with the corn and hunting
booty of the Indians.

It was thought that still further punishment was necessary, so a price
was fixed on the scalps of the Alabamas and Boisbriand and forty men
marched against them.

Another expedition was despatched against the Chetimachas who murdered
Father St. Cosme, and yet another into the Alabama country.

Thus the months passed in warfare and diplomacy, and it is certain that
Tonty bore his full share in all the concerns of the colony. The little
establishment was holding on and gradually elbowing a place for itself
when in August, 1703, the "Loire" arrived from France with seventeen
passengers and six thousand livres of money as well as much needed
supplies and provisions. The reinforcement was timely and greatly
encouraged the colonists.

Iberville meantime had been named governor and commander-in-chief of all
the French possessions on the Gulf and along the Mississippi, but ill
health detained him in France. Nevertheless in August, 1704, he sent out
the "Pelican" loaded with live stock, food, merchandise, and everything
that Iberville thought could be useful to the new settlement. With her
also came sixty-five soldiers, part of Chateauguay's company, De la
Vente, the missionary, fated to be another thorn in the side of
Bienville, and twenty-three girls of good family, by means of whom it
was hoped the irresponsible, roving _coureurs de bois_ might be
domesticated and anchored to the colony.

It seemed at last as if the colony must thrive and prosperity would
crown the lean years of adversity, but while giving with a liberal hand
Fate smote with the other. The "Pelican" had touched at San Domingo and
brought with her the yellow fever. It was September, the pestilential
month in the South, and the epidemic slew the inhabitants with
indiscriminate zeal. Two-thirds of the colonists went down. The
"Pelican" lost half of her crew. Thirty of the newly arrived soldiers
died together with Doug, the Jesuit, and Le Vasseur. Laboring with the
sick and assisting the well was Tonty until at last he, too, succumbed
to the pest, and the great valley which had been his particular care and
home for so many years knew him no more--even in death. Somewhere on the
bank of the muddy Mobile, not far from the Gulf of Mexico, he lies at
rest in an unknown grave.

In behalf of the poor, struggling colony, he laid down the life which
for twenty-five years he had dedicated to a dream of empire. In later
times, indeed, the Mississippi Valley was destined to fulfil his
ambitious vision, but in a manner strangely different from his patriotic
ideal.

The character of Tonty has called forth the warmest admiration from all
students of his life and period. His steadfast loyalty was primarily the
expression of his rare unselfishness, but also it was evidence of a
lofty spirit which sacrificed personal ambition to the attainment of
noble ends. If he lacked the dominating personality of La Salle and the
imperial imagination of Iberville, he was none the less a strong and
influential chieftain. If he lacked the impulsive emotionalism that
captivates the souls of men and leads them to victory or perdition with
an equal enthusiasm, he was nevertheless a practical far-seeing man of
affairs, whose actions were always controlled by the head.

His were not the quick decisions born of intuition, but rather the
discriminating judgments of an unperturbed mentality. His laconic
statement about the "Griffon" that "the vessel was completed during the
spring of 1679" reminds us of later captains whose simple words, "We
have met the enemy and they are ours"; "When you are ready, Gridley, you
may fire," have endeared them to us far beyond their victories.

In courage, intrepidity, and innate diplomacy he was unexcelled, while
his noble endurance of neglect, of injustice and the buffetings of fate,
together with his early death give to his life a pathos that was lacking
in many heroes.

In him also may be detected a love of wandering, an unflagging energy
and a zeal for chivalrous emprise--those elemental traits that seek
expression in elemental environment and elemental contests.

Not for him the blood made thick and sickly by the fetid vapors of the
money changers, but rather the joy of the wide spaces and the stirring
conflict with the wilderness. These, the true inheritance of
knight-errantry, purge the spirit and make it strong and clean and
active--a discipline of the soul.

This it was which drove him over huddled seas, up the heights of
adventurous circumstance, and into unknown lands. Never more did he
return to France, but from the forest-crowned cliffs of the Illinois to
the steaming swamps of the South he wandered uneasily to and fro.
Watching, waiting, longing, and striving, he followed the call of the
river; over his great soul, like a mantle, the Father of Waters had
thrown an imperious spell; under this spell he lived and under its
fateful charm he died--eminently unfortunate, yes, but how eminently
human!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 6: A paper read before the Society, September 14, 1911.]

[Footnote 7: Halbert, the historian, in a personal communication,
expressed the belief that Tonty did not visit the Choctaws until the
homeward journey.]




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[End of _Masters of the Wilderness_ by Charles Bert Reed]
